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CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS. Illustrated. 
LEE THE AMERICAN. Illustrated. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON AND NEW YORK 



CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 




JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 



CONFEDERATE 
PORTRAITS 



BY 

GAMALIEL BRADFORD 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

MDCCCCXIV 



■:b7S 



COPYRIGHT, 1912, AND I9I3, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT, I913, BY THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT, I9I3, BY PERRY MASON COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT, I9I4, BY GAMALIEL BRADFORD 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published April iqi^ 



APR 15 1914 



>CI.A3T1370 n^ 



C90 



TO 

MARVIN SPRAGUE 

" Eit aliquid sacri in ant'iquis necessitudinibus." 



" La critique pour moi, c'est le plaisir de connaitre 
les esprits, non de les regenter." 

Satnte-Beuve. 



PREFACE 

What has impressed me most in revising these portraits 
is their lack of finaUty. Noics sotmiies des etres mobiles et 
nous jugeo7ts des etres mobiles. No two men will take the 
same view of another man. Traits which seem most sig- 
nificant to some, to others seem negligible. Some will 
overlook a little vice for a great virtue, while to others 
the little vice makes even the great virtue an object of 
suspicion. 

Again, one may seize justly, yet be led away in the 
presentation. It is difficult to give various qualities their 
exact proportion and emphasis. One may stress a marked 
trait too strongly and so make it too marked and spoil 
that balance which is everywhere essential to the truth of 
nature. One may establish one's, portrait in a tone which 
is not perfectly suited to the temper of the subject. Thus, 
the portraits here given of Johnston and of Stuart are 
keyed quite differently. I cannot see the two men other- 
wise. But others may feel that I have struck a false note 
in one case, or in the other, or in both. 

This difficulty, or impossibility, of attaining anything 
final may make psychography seem a useless and un- 
profitable art. Such it would be, if finality were its ob- 
ject. It is not. The psychographer does not attempt to 
say the complete and permanent word about any of his 
subjects. He knows that such an attempt would be in- 



X PREFACE 

deed futile. Instead, he aims simply to facilitate to others, 
even a little, what he has himself found to be the most 
fascinating and inexhaustible of pursuits, the study of the 
human soul. In this study, if there were complete finality, 
if you could exhaust the book, even any one particular 
book, even your own, and shut it with a snap, half the 
fascination would be gone. The wisest of us hardly dares 
say, with the soothsayer in Antojiy and Cleopatra, — 

"In nature's infinite book of secrecy 
A little I can read." 

In some of these Confederate portraits there may be 
thought to be a note of undue harshness. All I can say 
is that I have endeavored to display and to insist upon 
the high and fine qualities manifest in every case. To 
pass over or slight the shadows seemed to me neither 
just nor wise. As to any partiality in the matter, after 
careful self-examination, I can discover no motive which 
could lead me to anything of the sort, unless it were an un- 
due desire to exalt Lee. Of this I am not conscious, and, if 
I have not been misled by some such influence, I feel that 
the net result of careful study of Lee's companions in arms 
is to bring out more than ever the serene elevation of his 
greatness. Some of them were, perhaps, more brilliant 
than he, some greater orators, some profounder think- 
ers, some even as capable soldiers. Not one approaches 
him in those moral qualities, which, as Mr. Adams has 
justly pointed out, place him, as they do Washington, far 
above those who aided him in his terrible struggle. 



PREFACE xi 

During my prolonged study of Lee's contemporaries, 
which compelled me to take note of their various faults 
and weaknesses, I have also continued my careful watch 
for similar weaknesses in Lee himself. The suggestion 
of anything of the kind has been rare enough ; but in 
justice to Johnston and Longstreet and Beauregard I 
think it right to print the following very curious passage 
from a letter of General G. W. Smith to Johnston him- 
self, written in the summer of 1862, before Lee had thor- 
oughly established his great reputation. Smith was sore, 
from neglect, deserved or undeserved, and wide search 
elsewhere reveals no suggestion of a state of mind like 
his in any one else. But it must be confessed that just 
the defects of manner indicated here are what one would 
look for in a temperament like Lee's, if defects were 
there at all. 

" I came off on a three weeks' leave. Just before it ex- 
pired I requested Beckham to write to Chilton, for Lee's 
information, saying that I would not return because not 
well enough, but was improving. I received yesterday a 
note from Lee, in answer to Beckham's note to Chilton, 
first a layer of sugar, three lines, then two lines telling 
me to forward a certificate, and three more lines of sugar. 
I shall keep him informed from time to time of the con- 
dition of my health. Gaillard is with me, so I feel quite 
assured of correct information and judgment in the case, 
and do not propose supplying General Lee with any 
more surgeon's certificates beyond that upon which the 



xii PREFACE 

original leave was granted. He took special pains to tell 
me, when I called to find out about Jackson's move- 
ments, in order to judge whether I had better stay in 
Richmond any longer waiting for a battle, that he could 
not grant me leave except on surgeon's certificate ; that 
was ' his rule,' he said. I told him I did n't come to ask 
for leave, but to get information upon which to determine 
whether I would yield to the advice of the surgeons and 
leave the city, adding that I had already put it off for 
ten days or more in anticipation of active operations, 
and was getting worse, instead of better. In a semi-pious, 
semi-official, and altogether disagreeable manner, he 
commenced regretting that I had n't gone sooner ; con- 
sidered that the army had lost my services for ten days 
unnecessarily — and other like stufiF. We 'will bide our 
time.' All I want is success to the cause ; but there is a 
limit beyond which forbearance ceases to be a virtue, 
and if provoked much further I will tear the mask off of 
some who think themselves wonderfully successful in 
covering up their tracks." (O. R., vol. io8, p. 593.) 

Some readers may, perhaps, be surprised, in a volume 
of Confederate portraits, to find no portrait of either 
of the two chief Confederates, next to Lee, Davis and 
Jackson. I have, however, already dealt with these dis- 
tinguished figures in the chapters on " Lee and Davis " 
and " Lee and Jackson " in Lee the American^ and I felt 
that to introduce them here would simply mean a con- 
siderable repetition of the earlier studies. 



PREFACE xiii 

I wish I could thank in detail the very numerous cor- 
respondents who have furnished me with suggestions and 
corrections. I am especially indebted to Captain Frederick 
M. Colston, of Baltimore, for most valuable material and 
comment. Professor Ulrich B. Phillips, of the University 
of Michigan, has kindly supplied me with advance copies 
of his excellent Life of Toombs and of his forthcoming 
edition of the Toombs correspondence, which have in- 
duced me to modify and considerably enlarge my por- 
trait of that fascinating personage. Honorable Robert M. 
Hughes, General Johnston's grand-nephew and consci- 
entious biographer, has supplemented his courteous pro- 
test against my judgment of the general by the commu- 
nication of extensive material, on the strength of which 
that judgment has been somewhat altered, though not, 
I fear, so much as Mr. Hughes would desire. 

Seven of the portraits contained in this volume have 
been printed in the Atla7ttic Monthly, the portrait of 
General Beauregard in Neale's Mo7ttJily Magazine, and 
the sketch of the battle of Gettysburg in the Youth! s 
Companion. 

Wellesley Hills, Mass., 
September 19, 1913. 



CONTENTS 

I. Joseph E. Johnston i 

Brief summary of Johnston's military career — judgments of 
his generalship — his ill-luck — in wounds — in being always 
too late — Davis a prominent element in Johnston's ill-luck 

— Johnston's character a prominent element — rashness, pro- 
ducing wounds — the quarrel with Davis — Davis's faulty 
attitude — Johnston's — his free criticism — his animosity to 
Davis's favorites — to Davis himself — restraint on both 
sides during war — bitterness on both sides afterwards — 
Johnston's book condemns him — admirable and charming 
elements of his character — his courage — frankness — hon- 
esty — simplicity — freedom from ambition — affection for 
friends and family — devotion of his officers to him — of the 
country — of his soldiers — two quotations summing up 
Johnston's character. 

II. J. E. B. Stuart 33 

Stuart's fighting disposition — his early career — capture of 
John Brown — Stuart's indifference to danger — his mens' trust 
in him — his comradeship with them — his care for them — his 
discipline — more than a mere sworder — his self-control — 
his foresight and calculation — should Lee have given him 
Jackson's place? — his joy in battle — infectiousness of this 

— his unfailing spirits — his vanity — love of display — 
shows in his writing — his laughter — his love of song — and 
dance — and women — their admiration for him — yet his 
purity — and temperance — and religion — thorough human- 
ness of his quarrel with Trimble — fortunate in his death. 

III. James Longstreet 63 

Dutch characteristics of character and appearance — fighting 
qualities — coolness — a marked trait, self-confidence — 
shows in relations with Lee — their mutual affection — but 



xvi CONTENTS 

Longstrcet's advice and patronage — particularly at Gettys- 
burg — Longstreet goes west in 1863 — similar self-confidence 
with regard to Bragg — with regard to Davis — with regard to 
Law and McLaws at Fort Loudon — and again with regard 
to Lee in Richmond campaign — self-confidence also explains 
Longstreet's conduct after war — Mrs. Longstrcet's testi- 
mony — other qualities of Longstreet's character — unde- 
niable jealousy and bitterness — towards Lee, Early, Jackson 

— but Longstreet's fine qualities — his patriotism — his gen- 
erosity — his love for his men — their love for him — Long- 
street dies a Roman Catholic. 

IV. p. G. T. Beauregard 93 

Beauregard's French origin and temperament — his social 
charm — his vanity — shown in his love of rhetoric — in his 
exaltation of his own achievements — in Roman's biography 

— his vanity a cause of jealousy — this makes difficult rela- 
tions with Davis — with others — notably J. E. Johnston — 
Beauregard's ill-feeling restrained during the war, however — 
his patriotism — his military ability — his coolness — his 
hold on his troops — and consequent popularity — his fertile 
imagination — and unlimited planning — value of his plans — 
none of them effective — dangers of too great imagination — 
"driveling on possibilities" — the solace of what might have 
been. 

V. JuDAH P. Benjamin 121 

Diversity of Benjamin's career — disbelieves in biography 
and destroys papers — which does him no good — his profes- 
sional qualities — oratory — his high character as a lawyer — 
in politics strong Southerner — his many failures — attorney- 
general of Confederacy — secretary of war — fails — secre- 
tary of state — fails — his connection with the St. Albans 
raid — not a great statesman — his prominence owing first to 
business methods — second to knowledge of men — yet this 
not supplemented by sympathy, as with Lee — Benjamin in 
private life — his social charm — his smile — his religion — 
his quick temper — his quarrel with Davis — his love of ex- 



CONTENTS xvii 

citement — his family relations — not an unscrupulous adven- 
turer — nor a mere advocate — genuinely loyal to the Con- 
federacy — but not a great man. 

VI. Alexander H. Stephens 151 

Contradictions in Stephens's character — his delicate health 

— his energy of soul — recalls Voltaire — but Stephens had 
spiritual as well as physical ills — his melancholy — conquers 
this by effort — by religion — by action — by social interests 

— his humor — his popularity — his affections — for home — 
for persons — for animals — his philanthropy — his tolerance 
and gentleness — essentially an intellectualist — follows his 
conviction — to the death, if necessary — his intellectualism 
in business habits — in religion — in law — in politics — no 
partisan, but follows truth as he sees it — believes in eight- 
eenth century abstractions — his book — Stephens politically 
ineffectual, but historically significant. 

VII. Robert Toombs 183 

His impressive physique — a fighter — in law — in politics 

— delight in opposition — follows own course in all policies — 
prominent on Southern side before war — speakership con- 
test — Tremont Temple speech — Sumner assault — other 
qualities besides fighting — humor — love of simple country 
life — hospitality — domestic affection — professional hon- 
esty — balancing qualities and conservatism in politics — 
opposes even secession till the end — under Confederacy fails 
politically — fails militarily — cause of failure — lack of dis- 
cipline — fighting qualities come out again after war — does 
much of value for Georgia — dies an unrepentant rebel — 
Milton's Satan. 

VIII. Raphael Semmes 217 

Romance of Official Records — names — Raphael Semmes — 
not a pirate — in spite of his own views of privateering — gen- 
eral character of Alabama's career — Semmes not romantic 
adventurer — elderly, respectable professional man — his 
intelligence — his humanity to prisoners — relations with 



xviii CONTENTS 

crew — discipline — their affection for him — his private life 

— domestic affection — love of nature — religious feeling — 
Christian virtues — bearing of these upon his public career — 
his patriotism — his freedom from ambition — but defects — 
coarse strain in abuse of enemies — something piratical after 
all — Byronics — described as corsair in appearance — rhe- 
toric — " Rest thee, excalibur." 

IX, The Battle of Gettysburg . . . . 247 

Origin of the war — a five-act drama — act I, alarums and 
excursions — act II, Southern triumph — act III, Vicksburg 
and Gettysburg — characters of Lee and of Meade — first day, 
battle in the village, Reynolds killed. Confederate advantage 

— second day, Longstreet attacks Round Tops — and fails — 
third day, Pickett's great charge repulsed — Gettysburg 
climax of war — act IV, Wilderness and Sherman's march — 
act V, Petersburg — lessons of Gettysburg. 

Notes 263 

Index 281 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Joseph E. Johnston Frontispiece 

J. E. B. Stuart 35 

James Longstreet 65 

P. G. T. Beauregard 95 

JuDAH P. Benjamin 123 

Alexander H, Stephens 153 

Robert Toombs 183 

Raphael Semmes 2ig 



The portrait of Alexander H. Stephens is from a photograph by Brady in 
the Library of the State Department, Washington, D.C. ; the other por- 
traits are from photographs in the Library of the Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion of the United States, and are reproduced by the courtesy of 
Colonel Arnold A. Rand. 



CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 
I 

Joseph E. Johnston 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, February 3, 1 807. 

Entered West Point in 1825. 

Second Lieutenant, 1829. 

Engaged in Black Hawk Expedition, 1832, 

Indian wars in Florida, 1836. 

Captain, 1838. 

Indian wars under Worth, 1842. 

Married, July 10, 1845, Lydia McLane. 

Served in Mexican War, 1846-47. 

Lieutenant Colonel, 1847. 

Quartermaster-General, i860. 

Resigned U.S. commission, April 22, 1 861. 

Commanded at First Bull Run, July 21, 1861. 

General, 1861. 

Commanded at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. 

Wounded at Fair Oaks, May 31, 1862. 

Commanded in Tennessee, 1863. 

Opposed to Sherman, 1 863-1 864. 

Relieved, July 17, 1864. 

Commanded in North Carolina, February 23, 1865. 

Surrendered to Sherman, April 26, 1865. 

Wrote Narrative of Military Operations, 1874. 

Died, March 21, 1891. 



CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

I 

JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 

Opinions differ as to the quality of Johnston's general- 
ship. Let us have the bare, indisputable facts first. After 
distinguished service with the United States Army 
against the Indians and in Mexico, he was the highest 
officer in rank to join the Confederacy, although he was 
given only the fourth position among the five Confed- 
erate generals. His first command was at Harper's Ferry 
and in the Shenandoah Valley. Here he outmanoeuvred 
Patterson and appeared at Bull Run in time to assume 
control during that battle. He himself admits that he 
believed it inexpedient to follow up the Confederate vic- 
tory with a march on Washington. In the spring of 1862 
Johnston led the Army of Northern Virginia and fought 
the battles of Williamsburg and Fair Oaks. After this a 
severe wound kept him inactive through the summer 
and Lee took his place. 

During the first half of 1863 Johnston held a some- 
what vague control over the western armies of the Con- 
federacy. Davis hoped that he would defeat Grant and 
save Vicksburg ; but he did neither. After Bragg had 
been worsted and had become so unpopular that Davis 



4 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

could no longer support him, Johnston was given the 
command of the Army of Tennessee and commissioned 
to resist Sherman's advance through Georgia. This he 
did in slow and careful retreat, disputing every disput- 
able point, inflicting greater losses than he received, and 
wonderfully preserving the discipline, courage, and en- 
ergy of his army. The Government was not satisfied, 
however, and preferred to substitute Hood and his dis- 
astrous offensive. Early in 1865, when Lee became com- 
mander-in-chief, he restored Johnston, who conducted a 
skillful, if hopeless, campaign in the Carolinas, and finally 
surrendered to Sherman on favorable terms. 

Unsurpassed in retreat and defense, a wide reader 
and thinker and a profound military student, Johnston 
was no offensive fighter, say his critics. Among Northern 
writers Cox, who admired him greatly, remarks : " His 
abilities are undoubted, and when once committed to an 
offensive campaign, he conducted it with vigor and skill. 
The bent of his mind, however, was plainly in favor of 
the course which he steadily urged — to await his adver- 
sary's advance and watch for errors which would give 
him a manifest opportunity to ruin him." ^ And on the 
Southern side Alexander's summary is that "Johnston 
never fought but one aggressive battle, the battle of 
Seven Pines, which was phenomenally mismanaged." 2 

Other competent authorities are more enthusiastic. 
Longstreet speaks of Johnston as " the foremost soldier 
of the South," 3 and Pollard as "the greatest military 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 5 

man in the Confederacy." ^ The English observer and 
critic, Chesney, says : " What he might have ventured 
had a rasher or less wary commander been before him, 
is as impossible to say as it would be to declare what 
would have been the result to Lee had Sherman taken 
the place of Grant in Virginia, As things were actually 
disposed, it is not too much to declare that Johnston's 
doing what he did with the limited means at his com- 
mand is a feat that should leave his name in the annals 
of defensive war at least as high as that of Fabius, or 
Turenne, or Moreau." ^ Among Johnston's enemies, 
Grant said to Bishop Lay, "When I heard your Gov- 
ernment had removed Johnston from command, I was as 
happy as if I had reinforced Sherman with a large army 
corps'';^ and to Young, "I have had nearly all of the 
Southern generals in high command in front of me, and 
Joe Johnston gave me more anxiety than any of the 
others. I was never half so anxious about Lee." '' Sher- 
man, who should have known, declares that "Johnston 
is one of the most enterprising of all their generals." ^ 
And in the opinion of Ropes, writing in dispassionate 
study, "Johnston had as good a military mind as any 
general on either side." ^ 

Yet I confess, I wish the man had achieved something. 
The skill, the prudence mixed with daring, which held 
every position before Sherman till the last possible mo- 
ment and then slipped away, without loss, without disas- 
ter, cannot be too much commended. Perhaps Stonewall 



6 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Jackson would have done no more. But I cannot help 
thinking Stonewall Jackson would have tried. 

No one understands a man better than his wife. Mrs. 
Johnston adored her husband. He was her knight, her 
chevalier, her hero, as he deserved to be. But when he 
scolded a girl who was attacked by a turkey-gobbler and 
neither ran nor resisted, saying, " If she will not fight, 
sir, is not the best thing for her to do to run away, sir?" 
Mrs, Johnston commented, " with a burst of her hearty 
laughter, ' That used to be your plan always, I know, 
sir.' " 1° No doubt the lady was mocking purely. No 
doubt she would have raged, if any one else had said it. 
Yet — no one understands a man better than his wife — 
when she understands him at all. 

In short, too much of Johnston's career consists of the 
things he would have done, if circumstances had only 
been different. 

And here it is urged, and justly urged, that fortune 
was against him. All his life he seems to have been the 
victim of ill luck. Lee was wounded, I think, only once. 
Johnston was getting wounded perpetually. He himself 
told Fremantle that he had been wounded ten times." 
General Scott said of him before the war that he " had 
an unfortunate knack of getting himself shot in every 
engagement." 12 A shell struck him down at Fair Oaks, 
just as it seemed that he might have beaten McClellan 
and saved Richmond. 

Nor was it wounds only. Johnston had a vigorous 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 7 

frame, compact, muscular, energetically martial ; yet 
bodily illness would sometimes hamper him just at a 
crisis. On the voyage to Mexico Lee was enjoying him- 
self, keenly alive to everything that went on about him. 
** I have a nice stateroom on board this ship," he writes. 
"Joe Johnston and myself occupy it, but my poor Joe is 
so sick all the time I can do nothing with him." ^^ 

And external circumstance was no kinder than the 
clayey habitation. " It seemed Johnston's fate to be 
always placed on posts of duty where extended efforts 
were necessarily devoted to organizing armies," i^ writes 
his biographer. He was always in time for toil, for dis- 
cipline, for sacrifice. For achievement he was apt to be 
too late. It is surprising how often the phrase recurs in 
his correspondence. "It is very unfortunate to be placed 
in such a command after the enemy has had time to pre- 
pare his attack." is << j arrived this evening, finding the 
enemy in full force between this place and General Pem- 
berton, cutting off the communication. I am too late." ^^ 
" It is too late to expect me to concentrate troops capable 
of driving back Sherman." ^^ At the greatest crisis of all, 
after retreating a hundred miles to draw his enemy on, 
he at last made his preparations with cunning skill for a 
decisive stand, which should turn retreat into triumph 
— too late. For the order arrived, removing him from 
the command and robbing him once more of the gifts of 
Fortune. 

It was from Davis that this blow came and Davis, or 



8 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

so Johnston thought, was Johnston's ill luck personified. 
There are legends of quarrel and conflict even in early- 
days at West Point, laying the foundation of lifelong 
hostility ; but those who knew Johnston best discredit 
these. At any rate, the two were unfriendly from the be- 
ginning of the war, and certainly nothing could be more 
damaging for a general than to have the head of his 
Government prejudiced against him. It was for this rea- 
son, in Johnston's opinion, that commands were given 
him when it was too late to accomplish anything and 
taken away when he was on the brink of achieving 
something great. It was for this reason that necessary 
support was denied and necessary supplies given grudg- 
ingly, for this reason that his powers were curtailed, his 
plans criticized, his intentions mistrusted. In the list of 
Destiny's unkindnesses, as summed up by one of the 
general's admirers, the ill will and ill treatment of Davis 
and Davis's favorites figure so prominently that other 
accidental elements seem of minor account. " If there is 
such a thing as ill fortune, he had more than his share 
of it. He never had the chance that Lee had. If he had 
not been wounded at Seven Pines, a great victory would 
have crowned his arms with substantial results. If he 
had not been betrayed at Jackson, he would have joined 
with Pemberton and captured Grant's army. If he had 
not been removed at Atlanta, he would almost certainly 
have defeated Sherman." ^^ 

When I survey this portentous concatenation of ifs, I 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 9 

ask myself whether, after all, Fortune deserved the full 
blame in the matter. You and I know scores of men who 
would have been rich and great and prosperous, if — if 
— if — And then a little reflection shows us that the if 
lies latent, or even patent, in the character or conduct of 
the man himself. It would be unjust and cruel to deny- 
that many cross-accidents thwarted Johnston's career, 
that inevitable and undeserved misfortunes fell between 
him and glory. Yet a careful, thoughtful study of that 
career forces me to admit that the man was in some 
respects his own ill fortune and injured himself. 

Take even the mere mechanical matter of wounds. 
Johnston may have got more than his share of blindly 
billeted projectiles. But every one agrees that his splen- 
did recklessness took him often into unnecessary dan- 
ger. One of his aides told Mrs. Chesnut that he had 
never seen a battle. " No man exposes himself more 
recklessly to danger than General Johnston, and no one 
strives harder to keep others out of it." ^^ Take also his 
trumpet words to a 3''oung soldier who had lost his horse. 
" To have a horse killed under one puts a tall feather in 
his cap. . . . Even at present prices I 'd freely give a 
good horse to the same fate." 20 Such adventurous chiv- 
alry in an officer of high rank is noble and lovable, but 
it is apt to mean ill luck in the matter of damages. 

Some of Johnston's other qualities were less noble 
and, I think, bred ill luck with no adequate compensa- 
tion. In the original cause of the quarrel with Davis, 



lo CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Johnston probably had justice on his side. The Confed- 
erate generals were to have ranked according to their 
position in the United States Army. In that army John- 
ston stood highest. But Davis placed him below Cooper, 
A. S. Johnston, and Lee. Davis had, as always, inge- 
nious arguments to support this procedure. Johnston 
thought the real argument was personal preference, and 
it may be that he was right. At any rate, he did not like 
it, and said so. 

Further, there was a radical difference between presi- 
dent and general as to military policy all through the 
war. Johnston believed that the true course was concen- 
tration, to let outlying regions go, mass forces, beat the 
enemy, and then easily recover what had been given 
up. Davis felt that the demoralization consequent upon 
such a course would more than outweigh the military 
advantages. 

Neither was a man to give up his own opinion. Nei- 
ther was a man to compromise. Neither was a man 
who could forget his own view to work out honestly, 
heartily, successfully, the view of another. " They were 
too much alike to get along," says Johnston's biographer. 
". . . They' were each high-tempered, impetuous, jeal- 
ous of honor, of the love of their friends, and they could 
brook no rival. They required absolute devotion, without 
question." 21 

You see that from these adjectives we begin to get a 
little more insight into Johnston's ill luck. Not that Davis 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON ii 

was not also largely at fault. To appreciate both sides, 
we must look more closely into the written words and 
comments of each. It is a painful, pitiable study, but 
absolutely necessary for understanding the character of 
Johnston. 

Davis, then, was ready to interfere when he should 
not. He had his own ideas of military policy and was 
anxious to have them carried out. Johnston was not at 
all inclined to carry out the president's ideas, and, hav- 
ing urged his own at first with little profit, became re- 
luctant to communicate them, especially as he did not 
feel sure of secrecy, and perhaps even a little reluctant 
to conceive them. Davis's eager temperament is annoyed, 
frets, appeals. "Painfully anxious as to the result at 
Vicksburg, I have remained without information from 
you as to any plans proposed or attempt to raise the 
siege. Equally uninformed as to your plans in relation 
to Port Hudson, I have to request such information in 
relation thereto as the Government has a right to expect 
from one of its commanding generals in the field." " 
Again, " I wish to hear from you as to the present situa- 
tion, and your plan of operations, so specifically as will 
enable me to anticipate events." ^3 

When Johnston's replies are evasive or non-committal, 
— partly because of his fear of publicity, — Davis's atti- 
tude becomes crisply imperative. "The President in- 
structs me to reply," he writes through Cooper, "that he 
adheres to his order and desires you to execute it." ^^ No 



12 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

tact here; no attempt at conciliation or persuasion. 
Sometimes the tone is injured, hurt, resentful: "While 
some have expressed surprise that my orders to you 
were not observed, I have at least hoped that you would 
recognize the desire to aid and sustain you, and that it 
would produce the corresponding action on your part/'^s 
Sometimes it is brusque to roughness : " I do not per- 
ceive why a junction was not attempted, which would 
have made our force nearly equal in number to the esti- 
mated strength of the enemy and might have resulted in 
his total defeat under circumstances, which rendered re- 
treat or reinforcement for him scarcely practicable." ^e 
The president rates his second in command as if he were 
a refractory schoolboy. "The original mistakes in your 
telegram of 12th June would gladly have been overlooked 
as accidental, if acknowledged when pointed out. The 
perseverance with which they have been insisted on has 
not permitted me to pass them by as mere oversights."^? 
"It is needless to say that you are not considered capa- 
ble of giving countenance to such efforts at laudation 
of yourself and detraction of others."^^ "The language 
of your letter is, as you say, unusual, its insinuations un- 
founded, and its arguments utterly unbecoming from a 
general in the field to his superior." 29 And the head of 
the Government is said to have gone even so far as, in 
speaking to Johnston's own former soldiers, to accuse 
their chief of actual disloyalty.^" 

As I read this sort of thing, I cannot help being 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 13 

reminded of Captain MacTurk's joyous comment, " Oh, 
crimini, if these sweetmeats be passing between them, it 
is only the two ends of a handlcercher that can serve the 
turn — Cot tamn!" 

And now, how much reason and excuse did Johnston 
give for such treatment? Abundant. Really, when I re- 
member Davis's keen and fiery disposition, I am less 
surprised at the things he did say than at those he did 
not. It is not so much any one word or speech in John- 
ston's case, as the constant attitude of disapproval, of 
fault-finding, of resentment even approaching sullen- 
ness. 

To begin with, Johnston criticized with the utmost 
freedom. He criticized even Lee. And if we did not 
know how deep was the affection between the two, we 
should be inclined to attribute the criticism to jealousy. 
" After his operations in the Wilderness, General Lee 
adopted as thorough a defensive as mine, and added by 
it to his great fame. The only other difference between 
our operations was due to Grant's bull-headedness and 
Sherman's extreme caution, which carried the army in 
Virginia to Petersburg in less than half the time in which 
Sherman reached Atlanta." ^i In the same way, according 
to Fremantle, he criticized Jackson. " General Johnston 
said that although this extraordinary man did not possess 
any great qualities as a strategist, and was perhaps unfit 
for the independent command of a large army ; yet he was 
gifted with wonderful courage and determination. . . . 



14 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

He was much indebted to General Ewell in the Valley 
Campaign." ^2 

It was natural enough for Johnston to think these 
things. It would have been better if he had not said 
them. 

When it is a question of Davis's friends and favorites, 
the criticism becomes manifest irritability. Thus John- 
ston writes to Randolph, whom he really admired. 
*' Your order was positive and unconditional. I had no 
option but to obey it. If injustice has been done it was 
not by me. If an improper order was given it was not 
mine. Mine, therefore, permit me to say, is not the one 
to be recalled or modified." ^s He writes to Benjamin, 
whom he did not admire at all : " Let me suggest that, 
having broken up the dispositions of the military com- 
mander, you give whatever other orders may be neces- 
sary." 34 As for Pemberton, who disobeyed him, and 
Hood, who supplanted him, he has no belief in their 
capacity nor patience with their blunders. 

When it comes to Davis himself, the tone is no more 
amiable or conciliatory. The long, vigorous, and elo- 
quent letter, written in regard to the question of rank 
which originated the trouble, deserves to be studied in 
every line. This was the one which Davis briefly dock- 
eted as "insubordinate." It is insubordinate, in spite 
of its logic and its nobility, and its significance is in- 
creased by Johnston's own confession that he waited for 
a night's reflection before sending it. "If the action 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 15 

against which I have protested is legal, it is not for me 
to question the expediency of degrading one who has 
served laboriously from the commencement of the war 
on this frontier, and borne a prominent part in the only 
great event of that war, for the benefit of persons 
[Sidney Johnston and Lee] neither of whom has yet 
struck a blow for the Confederacy." ^^ The spirit is 
wrong, not such as becomes a man ready to give more 
than his life, his own self-will, for a great cause. 

The same spirit continues and intensifies to the very 
end. Davis may have provoked it. He did not create it. 
And who can wonder that it harassed him past bearing? 
No quotation of a line here and there can give the full 
effect of the wasp stings which Johnston's schoolboy 
petulance — I can call it nothing else — was constantly 
inflicting. " I request, therefore, to be relieved of a merely 
nominal geographical command." ^e «Let me ask, for 
the sake of discipline, that you have this rule enforced. 
It will save much time and trouble and create the belief 
in the army that I am its commander." 37 " if the Depart- 
ment will give me timely notice when it intends to exer- 
cise my command, I shall be able to avoid such inter- 
ference with its orders." ^s 

Doubtless, also, Johnston's attitude reacted upon the 
officers about him. He was an outspoken man and those 
who loved him were not very likely to love the president. 
An exceedingly interesting letter of Mackall's, printed 
in the " Official Records," gives some insight into the 



i6 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

condition of things I refer to. " Pemberton is everything 
with Davis, the devout," writes Mackall ; " his intelli- 
gence is only equaled by his self-sacrificing regard for 
others." ^^ And again: "The people won't stand this 
nonsense much longer. Mr. Davis's game now is to pre- 
tend that he don't think you a great general. He don't 
tell the truth, and if he did, as all the military men in the 
country differ with him, he will be forced to yield." ^° 
Any commander who tolerates this sort of thing from 
a subordinate, tacitly, more than tacitly, admits that he 
shares the subordinate's opinion. 

The sum of the matter is that Johnston had allowed 
himself to fall into the fatal frame of mind of assuming 
that Davis's action was constantly dictated by personal 
animosity towards himself. Such an assumption, whether 
well founded or not, if dwelt on and brooded over, was 
sure to breed a corresponding animosity and to paralyze 
both the general's genius and his usefulness. Nothing 
shows this attitude better than Johnston's remark to 
S. D. Lee, when Lee congratulated him on his restora- 
tion to command in 1865 and on Davis's promise of 
support: " He will not do it. He has never done it. It 
is too late now, and he has only put me in command to 
disgrace me."^^ 

While the war was actually going on, this mutual 
hostility of president and general was controlled to some 
extent by the necessary conventions and civilities of 
official intercourse. It is both curious and pitiable to see 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 17 

the restraints of decency covering such obvious distrust, 
dissatisfaction, and dislike. Davis was always the more 
diplomatic. Further, I think he shows a deeper sense of 
the immense interests involved and the necessity of mak- 
ing sacrifices for them than Johnston does. Indeed, for 
a long time he was ready to meet Johnston halfway, if 
Johnston would have gone his half. Even after their 
preliminary squabble about rank, so late as June, 1862, 
at the time of Johnston's wound, the president writes : 
"General J. E. Johnston is steadily improving. I wish 
he were able to take the field. Despite the critics, who 
know military affairs by instinct, he is a good soldier, 
never brags of what he did do, and could at this time 
render most valuable service."^^ Much later still, real, 
almost pathetic kindness is mingled with reproof and re- 
crimination : " I assure you that nothing shall be want- 
ing on the part of the Government to aid you in your 
effort to regain possession of the territory from which 
we have been driven. ... It is my desire that you 
should communicate fully and freely with me concerning 
your plan of action, that all the assistance and coopera- 
tion may be most advantageously afforded that it is in 
the power of the Government to render." ^s 

As for Johnston, he is the military subordinate of this 
personal enemy of his. He knows his duty. He will be 
submissive, he will be obedient, he will be respectful, if 
it costs his own ruin and his country's. The study of his 
efforts is painfully interesting. Before the rupture had 



i8 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

become chronic, they were successful and his tone rises 
to real nobility. " Your Excellency's known sense of jus- 
tice will not hold me to that responsibility while the 
corresponding control is not in my hands. Let me assure 
your Excellency that I am prompted in this matter by 
no love of privilege, of position, or of personal rights as 
such, but by a firm belief that under the circumstances 
what I propose is necessary to the safety of our troops 
and cause." ^* Even to the end official respect is pre- 
served, whatever may have been the feelings underneath 
it. " I need not say, however, that your wishes shall be 
promptly executed." ^^ " That suggestion [of mine] was 
injudicious. It is necessary, of course, that those should 
be promoted whom you consider best qualified." ^^ " I 
will obey any orders of the President zealously and exe- 
cute any plan of campaign of his to the best of my abil- 
ity."^^ «j \^Qg leave to suggest — most respectfully — 
that there is but one way by which the Government can, 
without injury to discipline, give the orders — the mode 
prescribed by itself — through the officers commanding 
armies or departments." ^^ 

Also, it must not be supposed that Johnston ever per- 
mitted himself petty complaints to those about him. 
So late as August, 1863, one who knew him well writes: 
" In all the many and frequent conversations I have had 
with General Johnston I have never heard one word es- 
cape his lips savoring of any want of personal regard for 
the President." ^9 And even after the general had been 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 19 

superseded by Hood another good observer writes to 
the same effect: " He bore his trouble with a stoicism 
which was pathetic, since we, who knew and loved him, 
were so fully aware of the agony of mind and heart. he 
suffered. But no word escaped his lips, whatever his 
thoughts may have been." ^° 

Then the war came to a disastrous end and everybody 
was free to abuse everybody else. Davis, in a private 
letter, afterwards printed, implied pretty directly that 
Johnston and Beauregard were knaves,^^ and Johnston 
told a reporter that Davis was *' perverse and wrong- 
headed"; that he was "malignant and utterly unfitted 
to be at the head of any important movement." ^ 2 Davis 
and Johnston both wrote books and said what they 
thought with lamentable outspokenness. Perhaps Davis's 
individual utterances are more savage than any of John- 
ston's. Thus, the former writes in his book: "Very little 
experience, or a fair amount of modesty without any ex- 
perience, would serve to prevent one from announcing 
the conclusion that troops could be withdrawn from a 
place or places without knowing how many were 
there." ^^ And still more forcibly in the very able paper 
which he prepared for the last session of the Confederate 
Congress : " My confidence in General Johnston's fitness 
for separate command was now destroyed. The proof 
was too complete to admit of longer doubt that he was 
deficient in enterprise, tardy in movement, defective in 
preparation, and singularly neglectful of the duty of pre- 



20 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

serving our means of supply and transportation, although 
experience should have taught him their value and the 
difficulty of procuring them."^^ 

But, after all, the quarrel with Johnston was but one 
element in Davis's vast career ; and it was the president's 
great good fortune that in his case patriotism and self- 
preservation went together and his most earnest and 
genuine efforts for his country were also for himself. 

With Johnston the situation was unhappily different. 
He was never anything but nobly patriotic in intention. 
But the ruin of the nation was coincident with the ruin 
of his own personal enemy, and he brooded so deeply 
over that personal enmity that it seems as if his narrative 
were mainly occupied with the attempt to portray his 
enemy's injustice and consequent failures and mistakes. 
I have read and reread his book, and every reading 
deepens the impression of pity for splendid gifts so 
blighted, for great opportunities, not so much military as 
moral, thrown away. One, or two, or five quotations are 
not enough to justify this impression. It springs quite as 
much from what is unsaid as from what is said. Yet 
some quotation we must have. 

To begin with, Johnston writes admirably, a clear, 
vigorous, logical style, which makes every point tell, 
bites, stings, lashes, if necessary. His vigor and brevity 
give the impression of absolute truth, and no one can 
suspect him of ever intending anything else. Indeed, his 
biographer declares that in all his statements he is singu- 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 21 

larly scrupulous and accurate. Some careful critics have 
denied this. Thus his deduction of Sherman's losses from 
the burials in Marietta Cemetery has been shown to be 
altogether wrong because many of those burials were of 
soldiers who never belonged to Sherman's army at all.^^ 
Again, General Palfrey, usually so impartial, declares : 
" The more I study Johnston's writings, the more cause 
I find to mistrust them. I like to believe in him ; but I 
cannot do so absolutely, for I find that he permits him- 
self great freedom in asserting what he does not know to 
be true." se 

The freedom and looseness of statement spring from 
Johnston's dogmatic temper, from his energy and de- 
cision, his practical incapacity for seeing more than his 
own side and point of view ; and the dogmatism and the 
energy lend double bitterness to the slurs which he is 
constantly flinging at the man who had been his leader, 
for better and for worse, and who — at least, so it seems 
to me — should have been respected for the sake of a 
noble cause and a vanished ideal. " Under such circum- 
stances his accusation is, to say the least, very discredit- 
able." " " It is not easy to reconcile the increase of my 
command by the President, with his very numerous dis- 
paraging notices of me." ^^ " Such an occurrence [explo- 
sion of buried shells] must have been known to the whole 
army, but it was not ; so it must have been a dream of 
the writer." 59 " These are fancies. He arrived upon the 
field after the last armed enemy had left it, when none 



22 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

were within cannon-shot, or south of Bull Run, when 
the victory was 'complete' as well as 'assured,' and no 
opportunity left for the influence of ' his name and bear- 
ing.' " 60 •< As good-natured weakness was never attrib- 
uted to Mr. Davis as a fault, it is not easy to reconcile 
the assertions and tone of this letter with his official 
course toward me." ^^ "I was unable then, as now, to 
imagine any military object for which this letter could 
have been written, especially by one whose time was sup- 
posed to be devoted to the most important concerns of 
the Government. ... As I had much better means of 
information on the subjects of this paper than its author, 
it could not have been written for my instruction." ^2 

"Oh, lago, the pity of it, lago 1 " Even the non-com- 
mittal and considerate Lee " instanced Joe Johnston's 
sensitiveness and how wrong and unwise it was," ^^ while 
Mr. Rhodes says, " Had Johnston been less sensitive to 
an affront to his personal dignity, had he been in temper 
like Lee, and had Davis shown such abnegation of self 
as did Lincoln in his dealings with his generals, blame 
and recrimination would not have been written on every 
page of Southern history." ^^ 

" No man was ever written down except by himself," 
said Dr. Johnson. Johnston wrote his book to clear his 
fame, and behold, it condemns him. One sentence of 
large forgiveness in face of calamity, one word of recog- 
nition that Davis and Seddon, however misguided, how- 
ever erring, had done their best to serve the same great 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 23 

cause that he was serving, would have achieved more for 
his lasting glory than all his five hundred pages of bitter 
self-justification. A large element in Johnston's ill-luck 
was just simply Joseph E. Johnston. 

And now comes the puzzle. It appears that in all or- 
dinary intercourse this man was one of the most amiable, 
most companionable, most lovable of human beings. In- 
contestable evidence gives him a list of attractive qualities 
so long that few can equal it. 

That he was brave goes without saying, with a de- 
lightful bravery that goes anywhere, and does anything, 
and makes no fuss. He was always ready to lead a charge 
or to cover a retreat. He had an enchanting, quiet cour- 
age, such as we timid spirits can lean upon, as upon a 
wall. Read the account of his behavior when he was so 
severely wounded at Fair Oaks. ** Reeling in his saddle, 
he said : * Quite extraordinary 1 It 's nothing, gentlemen, 
I assure you ; not worthy of comment. I think we ought 
to move up a little closer. If a surgeon is within call, and 
not too busy, at his convenience, perfect convenience, — 
he might as well look me over.' If some one on his staff 
had not caught him, the general would have fallen from 
his horse." ^^ Read also his playful confession with refer- 
ence to kerosene lamps. Only perfect courage can so 
trifle with itself : "Some kind of a patent kerosene lamp 
was sent me as a present, and the donor lit it, explaining 
to me the method of working it. Such was my nervous- 
ness, I never knew he was talking to me. Later, after 



24 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

somebody had extinguished the lamp, I tried to reason 
out to myself what a poltroon I was. We get hardened 
in time ; but I assure you, nothing would ever induce me 
to light or extinguish a kerosene lamp. I really envy you, 
madam, as possessing heroic traits, when you tell me you 
feel no alarm when in the presence of a kerosene lamp. 
But I am, by nature, an arrant coward. An enemy, armed 
with kerosene lamps, would drive me off the field. I 
should be panic personified." ^^ 

And Johnston was absolutely frank, outspoken, straight- 
forward, too much so for his own good ; but charmingly 
so. He gave his opinion of things and people, so that 
you knew where he stood, whether you agreed with him 
or not. How neatly does Colonel Anderson portray him 
with a touch. *"I think the Scotch the best,' the General 
quickly rejoined, with that slight toss of the head, with 
which he sometimes emphasized the expression of an 
opinion he was ready to do battle for." ^^ There was no 
cant about him, no rhetoric. I would not say, or imply, 
that the abundance of religious language in Southern re- 
ports and orders is ever insincere. But I occasionally tire 
of it. Johnston is very sparing in this regard. What he 
does say is evidently solemn and heartfelt. 

The general's honesty and uprightness are delightful, 
also. He was no politician, but his political convictions 
were as lofty and constant as they were simple. He fol- 
lowed Virginia. That was enough. "Nothing earthly 
could afford me greater satisfaction than the fulfillment 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 25 

of his good wishes by this army striking a blow for the 
freedom and independence of Virginia." ^^ "I drew it 
[his father's sword] in the war not for rank or fame, but 
to defend the sacred soil, the homes and hearths, the 
women and children, aye, and the men of my mother, 
Virginia, — my native South." ^9 After the war, when he 
was a candidate for Congress, his standpoint was as 
elementary — and as honorable. Some of his followers 
had tried to explain away his tariff attitude, for the sake 
of winning votes. "Gentlemen," he said, "this is a mat- 
ter about which I do not propose to ask your advice, 
because it involves my conscience and personal honor. 
I spoke yesterday, at Louisa Court-House, under a free- 
trade flag. I have never ridden ' both sides of the sapling,' 
and I don't propose to begin at this late day. That ban- 
ner in Clay Ward comes down to-day or I retire from 
this canvass by published card to-morrow." ''o Perhaps 
the finest tribute to his moral elevation comes from a 
generous enemy. " I recorded at the time," says Cox, 
writing of the surrender, ** my own feeling that I had 
rarely met a man who was personally more attractive to 
me than General Johnston. His mode of viewing things 
was a large one, his thoughts and his expression of them 
was refined, his conscientious anxiety to do exactly what 
was right in the circumstances was apparent in every 
word and act, his ability and his natural gift of leader- 
ship showed in his whole bearing and conduct." ^^ And 
in illustration of the scrupulous conscientiousness Cox 



26 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

adds that when the general learned that one of his staff 
had retained a little cavalry guidon of silk in the form of 
a Confederate flag, he sent for it at once and passed it 
over to the Union officers, as the colors were supposed 
to be surrendered. 

Johnston was as simple, too, as he was upright and 
honest, cared nothing for display, parade, or show, lived 
with his men and shared their fare and their hardships. 
"There was only one fork (one prong deficient) between 
himself and staff, and this was handed to me ceremoni- 
ously as the guest," says Fremantle.^^ «< While on his jour- 
ney to Atlanta to assume command of the second army of 
the Confederacy, he excited universal remark by having 
an ordinary box car assigned to himself and staff, instead 
of imitating the brigadiers of the time and taking pos- 
session of a passenger coach," says Hughes.'^^ 

Even as regards Johnston's sensitiveness to personal 
slights and to the advancement of others, it is curious 
to note that this does not seem to have been owing to 
any inordinate ambition. He himself says that he did 
not draw his sword for rank or fame ; and General Gordon 
tells us that he was not ambitious. This is doubtless ex- 
aggerated. All soldiers — all men — like rank and fame, 
when they can get them honestly. But I find no shadow 
of evidence that Johnston was devoured by Jackson's 
ardent fever, or ever dreamed long dreams of shadowy 
glory and success. His attitude in this connection recalls 
what Clarendon says of the Earl of Essex: "His pride 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 27 

supplied his want of ambition, and he was angry to see 
any man more respected than himself because he thought 
he deserved it more." ^* I believe that Johnston was even 
capable of the highest, noblest self-sacrifice, so long as it 
was quite voluntary and not demanded of him by others, 
and that he was always ready to act upon his own fine 
saying: "The great energy exhibited by the Government 
of the United States, the danger in which our very exist- 
ence as an independent people lies, requires sacrifice from 
us all who have been educated as soldiers." ^^ 

What is most winning about Johnston, however, in 
fact quite irresistible, is his warmth of nature, his affec- 
tion, his feminine tenderness, doubly charming in a man 
as strenuously virile as ever lived. His letters, even ofB- 
cial, have a vivacity and personal quality wholly differ- 
ent from Lee's. He loved his men, watched over them, 
cared for them, praised them : ** I can find no record of 
more effective fighting in modern battles than that of 
this army in December, evincing skill in the commanders 
and courage in the troops." ''^ He had the most kindly 
words for the achievements of his officers. Of Stuart he 
writes: "He is a rare man, wonderfully endowed by 
nature with the qualities necessary for an officer of light 
cavalry. Calm, firm, acute, active, and enterprising, I 
know no one more competent than he to estimate the 
occurrences before him at their true value." "^"^ And to 
Stuart : " How can I eat or sleep without you upon the 
outpost?" ^s Of Longstreet: " I rode upon the field, but 



28 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

found myself compelled to be a mere spectator, for 
General Longstreet's clear head and brave heart left me 
no apology for interference." ^^ With his equals in other 
commands he was amply generous, where they did not 
represent Davis. Thus he writes of Bragg: "I am very 
glad that your confidence in General Bragg is unshaken. 
My own is confirmed by his recent operations, which, in 
my opinion, evince great vigor and skill. It would be very 
unfortunate to remove him at this juncture, when he has 
just earned, if not won, the gratitude of the country." so 

The man is even more attractive in his private friend- 
ships. "One of the purest and strongest men I ever 
knew," says Stiles, " and perhaps the most affectionate." ^i 
Few more touching letters were ever wTitten than the 
one he addressed to Mrs. Lee after her husband's death. 
Less known, but almost equally charming in its frank- 
ness is the letter to Wigfall about Lee, written in March, 
1865 : "What you write me of Lee gratifies me beyond 
measure. In youth and early manhood I admired him 
more than any man in the world. Since then we have 
had little intercourse and have become formal in our 
personal intercourse. . . . When we are together former 
feelings always return. I have long thought that he had 
forgotten our early friendship ; to be convinced that I 
was mistaken in so thinking would give me inexpressible 
pleasure. Be assured, however, that Knight of old never 
fought under his King more loyally than I 'II serve under 
General Lee." ^^ 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 29 

Characteristic of Johnston's friendship was its singular 
demonstrativeness. He embraced and kissed his male 
friends as tenderly as if they were women. " I have said 
he was the most affectionate of men," writes Stiles. " It 
will surprise many, who saw only the iron bearing- of 
the soldier, to hear that we never met or parted, for any 
length of time, that he did not, if we were alone, throw 
his arms about me and kiss me, and that such was his 
habit in parting from or greeting his male relatives and 
most cherished friends." ^^ 

In his domestic relations there was the same tender- 
ness, the same devotion. He adored his wife, and their 
love was a lifelong idyl, diversified, as idyls should be, by 
sunny mocking and sweet merriment. He had no child- 
ren, but his nephews and nieces were as near to him as 
children. When he was told, in Mexico, of one nephew's 
death, " the shock was so great that he fell prostrate upon 
the works. Up to the day of his death, forty-four years 
later, Johnston kept a likeness of his nephew in his room 
and never failed to look at it immediately after rising." ^4 

With all this, is it any wonder that men loved him and 
resent bitterly to-day the inevitable conclusions drawn 
from his own written words ? Bragg wrote, in answer to 
one of Johnston's kind letters : " That spontaneous offer 
from a brother soldier and fellow-citizen, so honored and 
esteemed, will be treasured as a source of happiness and 
a reward which neither time nor circumstances can im- 
pair." 85 Kirby Smith wrote : *' I would willingly be back 



30 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

under your command at any personal sacrifice." ^^ Long- 
street wrote: "General Johnston was skilled in the art 
and science of war, gifted in his quick, penetrating mind 
and soldierly bearing, genial and affectionate in nature, 
honorable and winning in person, and confiding in his 
love. He drew the hearts of those about him so close 
that his comrades felt that they could die for him." ^^ 

The country trusted him. " I discover from my corres- 
pondence you possess the confidence of the whole coun- 
try as you do mine," writes a civilian, in December, 1863. ^^ 

The soldiers trusted him. After weeks of falling back, 
yielding point after point to an encroaching enemy, the 
evidence is overwhelming that Johnston's troops were 
cheerful, eager, zealous, had unbounded belief that he 
was doing the best that could be done, unbounded re- 
gret when they heard that he had been removed. His 
disciplinary faculty, his grip upon the hearts of men, 
his power of inspiration were immense and undisputed. 
He had the greatest gift a leader can have, magnetism. 
" There was a magnetic power about him no man could 
resist, and exact discipline followed at once upon his as- 
suming any command." ^^ What the general feeling in 
his army was is nowhere better shown than in the fine 
letter written to him by Brigadier-General Stevens, after 
Johnston had been reheved by Hood: "We have ever 
felt that the best was being done that could be, and have 
looked confidently forward to the day of triumph, when 
with you as our leader we should surely march to a 



JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 31 

glorious victory. This confidence and implicit trust has 
been in no way impaired, and we are to-day ready, as we 
have ever been, to obey your orders, whether they be to 
retire before a largely outnumbering foe, or to spend our 
last drop of blood in the fiercest conflict. We feel that in 
parting with you our loss is irreparable . . . and you 
carry with you the love, respect, esteem, and confidence, 
of the officers and men of this brigade." ^^ 

Yet a man so honored, admired, and beloved could 
write the "Narrative of Military Operations" I What a 
tangle human nature is ! 

If I wished to sum up Johnston's character briefly, I 
should quote two passages, both, as it happens, left us 
by women. Mrs. Chesnut writes, toward the close of the 
war: "Afterwards, when Isabella and I were taking a 
walk, General Joseph E. Johnston joined us. He ex- 
plained to us all of Lee's and Stonewall Jackson's mis- 
takes. We had nothing to say — how could we say 
anything?" ^^ When one reads this, remembering what 
Lee's position in the Confederacy was, what Johnston's 
was, and that he was talking to what must have been 
one of the liveliest tongues in the Southern States, one 
appreciates why Johnston did not succeed. When one 
turns to the remark of an officer to Mrs. Pickett — "Lee 
was a great general and a good man, but I never wanted 
to put my arms round his neck as I used to want to to 
Joe Johnston "92 — one is overcome with pity to think 
that Johnston should have failed. 



II 

J. E. B. Stuart 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born in Patrick County, Virginia, February 6, 1833. 

Graduated from West Point, 1854. 

Second Lieutenant, October 31, 1854. 

Married to Miss Flora Cooke, November 14, 1855. 

First Lieutenant, December 20, 1855. 

Served in Kansas in 1856. 

Served against the Indians in 1857. 

Served in the West till i860. 

Volunteered under Lee in John Brown Raid, 1859. 

Colonel in Confederate Army, July 16, 1861. 

Brigadier-General, September 24, 1861. 

Major-General, July 25, 1862. 

Served with Army of Northern Virginia throughout the war. 

Commanded Jackson's corps after Jackson's death at Chancellorsville. 

But returned again to cavalry command. May, 1863. 

Wounded at Yellow Tavern, May ii, 1864. 

Died, May 12, 1864. 




J. E. B. STUART 



II 

J. E. B. STUART 

Stuart was a fighter by nature. When he was at West 
Point in the early fifties, his distinguishing character- 
istics, as chronicled by Fitzhugh Lee, were " a strict 
attendance to his military duties, an erect, soldierly 
bearing, an immediate and almost thankful acceptance 
of a challenge from any cadet to fight, who might in any 
way feel himself aggrieved." ^ The tendency, if not in- 
herited, did not lack paternal encouragement; for the 
elder Stuart writes to his son, in regard to one of these 
combats : " I did not consider you so much to blame. 
An insult should be resented under all circumstances." 2 
The young cadet also showed himself to be a fearless 
and an exceptionally skillful horseman. 

These qualities served him well in the Indian warfare 
to which he was immediately transferred from West 
Point. His recklessness in taking chances was equaled 
only by his ingenuity in pulling through. One of his 
superiors writes : " Lieutenant Stuart was brave and gal- 
lant, always prompt in execution of orders and reckless 
of danger and exposure. I considered him at that time 
one of the most promising young officers in the United 
States Army." 3 

Later Stuart took a prominent part in the capture of 



36 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

John Brown. He himself wrote an account of the matter 
at the time for the newspapers, simply to explain and 
justify Lee's conduct. He also wrote a letter to his 
mother, with a characteristic description of his own 
doings : "I approached the door in the presence of per- 
haps two thousand spectators, and told Mr. Smith that 
I had a communication for him from Colonel Lee. He 
opened the door about four inches, and placed his body 
against the crack, with a cocked carbine in his hand ; 
hence his remark after his capture that he could have 
wiped me out like a mosquito. . . . When Smith first 
came to the door I recognized old Osawatomie Browriy 
who had given us so much trouble in Kansas. No one 
present but myself could have performed that service. I 
got his bowie-knife from his person, and have it yet." ^ 

From the very beginning of the war Stuart maintained 
this fighting reputation. He would attack any thing any- 
where, and the men who served under him had to do 
the same ; what is more, and marks the born leader, he 
made them wish to do the same. " How can I eat, sleep, 
or rest in peace without you upon the outpost?"^ wrote 
Joseph Johnston ; and a noble enemy, who had been a 
friend, Sedgwick, is reported to have said that Stuart was 
"the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled in America."^ 

Danger he met with more than stolid indifference, a 
sort of furious bravado, thrusting himself into it with 
manifest pleasure, and holding back, when he did hold 
back, with a sigh. And some men's luck ! Johnston was 



J. E. B. STUART 37 

wounded a dozen times, was always getting wounded. 
Yet Stuart, probably far more exposed, was wounded 
only once in his life, among the Indians ; in the war not 
at all. His clothes were pierced again and again. Ac- 
cording to Von Borcke, the general had half of his mous- 
tache cut off by a bullet "as neatly as it could have 
been done by the hand of an experienced barber." ^ Yet 
nothing ever drew blood till the shot which was mor- 
tal. Such an immunity naturally encouraged the sort of 
fatalism not unusual with great soldiers, and Stuart once 
said of the proximity of his enemies, "You might have 
shot a marble at them — but I am not afraid of any ball 
aimed at me." ^ 

In this spirit he got into scores of difficult places — 
and got out again. Sometimes it was by quick action 
and a mad rush, as when he left his hat and a few offi- 
cers behind him. Sometimes it was by stealth and se- 
crecy, as when he hid his whole command all night 
within a few hundred yards of the marching enemy. 
" And nothing now remained but to watch and wait and 
keep quiet. Quiet? Yes, the men kept very quiet, for 
they realized that even Stuart never before had them 
in so tight a place. But many a time did we fear that we 
were betrayed by the weary, hungry, headstrong mules 
of the ordnance train. Men were stationed at the head 
of every team ; but in spite of all precautions, a discord- 
ant bray would every now and then fill the air. Never 
was the voice of a mule so harsh 1 " ^ 



38 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

The men who had watched and tried and tested him 
on such occasions as these knew what he was and gave 
him their trust. He asked nothing of them that he would 
not do himself. Therefore they did what he asked of 
them. Scheibert says that " he won their confidence and 
inspired them by his whole bearing and personality, by 
his kindling speech, his flashing eye, and his cheerful- 
ness which no reverse could overcome." ^o Stuart him- 
self describes his followers' enthusiastic loyalty with a 
naivete as winning as it is characteristic. " There was 
something of the sublime in the implicit confidence and 
unquestioning trust of the rank and file in a leader guid- 
ing them straight, apparently, into the very jaws of the 
enemy, every step appearing to them to diminish the 
very faintest hope of extrication." ^^ Yet he asked this 
trust and they gave it simply on the strength of his word. 
"You are about to engage in an enterprise which, to 
ensure success, imperatively demands at your hands 
coolness, decision, and the strictest order and sobriety 
on the march and in the bivouac. The destination and 
extent of this expedition had better be kept to myself 
than known to you." ^^ 

The men loved him also because, when the strain was 
removed, he put on no airs, pretense, or remoteness of 
superiority, but treated them as man to man. " He was 
the most approachable of major-generals, and jested with 
the private soldiers of his command as jovially as though 
he had been one of themselves. The men were perfectly 



J. E. B. STUART 39 

unconstrained in his presence, and treated him more like 
the chief huntsman of a hunting party than as a major- 
general." ^^ fiis officers also loved him, and not only- 
trusted him for war, but enjoyed his company in peace. 
He was constantly on the watch to do them kindnesses, 
and would frolic with them — marbles, snowballs, quoits, 
what not ? — like a boy with boys. 

And Stuart loved his men as they loved him, did not 
regard them as mere food for cannon, to be used, and 
abused, and forgotten. There is something almost pa- 
thetic in his neglect of self in praising them. " The horse- 
man who, at his officer's bidding, without question, 
leaps into unexplored darkness, knowing nothing except 
that there is danger ahead, possesses the highest attri- 
bute of the patriot soldier. It is a great source of pride 
to me to command a division of such men." ^^ Careless 
of his own danger always, he was far more thoughtful 
of those about him. In the last battle he was peculiarly 
reckless, and Major McClellan noticed that the general 
kept sending him with messages to General Anderson. 
"At last the thought occurred to me that he was endeav 
oring to shield me from danger. I said to him : * Gen- 
eral, my horse is weary. You are exposing yourself, and 
you are alone. Please let me remain with you.' He smiled 
at me kindly, but bade me go to General Anderson with 
another message." ^^ 

Any reflection on his command arouses him at once 
to its defense. " There seems to be a growing tendency 



40 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

to abuse and underrate the services of that arm of the 
service [cavalry] by a few officers of infantry, among 
whom I regret to find General Trimble. Troops should 
be taught to take pride in other branches of the service 
than their own." ^^ 

It is very rare that Stuart has any occasion to address 
himself directly to the authorities at Richmond. Fight- 
ing, not writing, was his business. But when he feels that 
his men and horses are being starved unnecessarily, he 
bestirs himself, and sends Seddon a letter which is as 
.interesting for nervous and vigorous expression as for 
.the character of the writer. " I beg to urge that in no 
case should persons not connected with the army, and 
who are amply compensated for all that is taken, be 
allowed more subsistence per day than the noble veterans 
who are periling their lives in the cause and at every 
sacrifice are enduring hardship and exposure in the 
.ranks."" 

And the general's care and enthusiasm for his officers 
was as great as for the privates. It is charming to see 
how earnestly and how specifically he commends them 
in every report. Particularly, he is anxious to impress 
upon Lee that no family considerations should prevent 
the merited advancement of Lee's own son and nephew. 
Even on his deathbed one of his last wishes was that his 
faithful followers should have his horses, and he allotted 
■them thoughtfully according to each officer's needs. 

The general did not allow his feelings to interfere 



J. E. B. STUART 41 

with subordination, however. His discipHne " was as firm 
as could be with such men as composed the cavalry of 
General Lee's army," writes Judge Garnett. " He never 
tolerated nor overlooked disobedience of orders."^^ Even 
his favorites, Mosby and Fitz Lee, come in for reproof 
when needed. Of the latter's failure to arrive at Raccoon 
Ford when expected he writes : " By this failure to com- 
ply with instructions not only the movement of the cav- 
alry across the Rapidan was postponed a day, but a fine 
opportunity was lost to overhaul a body of the enemy's 
cavalry on a predatory excursion far beyond their lines."i9 
His tendency to severity in regard to a certain subordi- 
nate calls forth one of Lee's gently tactful cautions: "I 
am perfectly willing to transfer him to Paxton's brigade, 
if he desires it ; but if he does not, I know of no act of 
his to justify my doing so. Do not let your judgment be 
warped." 20 There were officers with whom Stuart could 
not get along ; for instance, ** Grumble Jones," who per- 
haps could get along with no one. Yet, after Stuart's 

death, Jones said of him : " By G , Martin ! You 

know I had little love for Stuart, and he had just as Httle 
for me ; but that is the greatest loss that army has ever 
sustained except the death of Jackson." 21 

From these various considerations it will be surmised 
that Stuart was no mere reckless sworder, no Rupert, 
good with sabre, furious in onset, beyond that signifying 
nothing. He knew the spirit of the antique maxim, " Be 
bold, and evermore be bold ; be not too bold." He had 



42 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

learned the hardest lesson and the essential corrective 
for such a temperament, self-control. To me there is an 
immense pathos in his quiet, almost plaintive explana- 
tion to Lee, on one occasion: "The commanding gen- 
eral will, I am sure, appreciate how hard it was to desist 
from the undertaking, but to any one on the spot there 
could be but one opinion — its impossibility. I gave it 
up." 22 On the other hand, no one knew better that in 
some cases perfect prudence and splendid boldness are 
one and the same thing. To use again his own language : 
" Although the expedition was prosecuted further than 
was contemplated in your instructions, I feel assured 
that the considerations which actuated me will convince 
you that I did not depart from their spirit and that the 
bold development in the subsequent direction of the 
march was the quintessence of prudence." 23 Lee always 
found the right words. In one of his reports he says of 
Stuart [italics mine] : "I take occasion to express to the 
Department my sense of the boldness, jndg7nent, and 
prudence he displayed in its execution." 24 

But one may have self-control without commanding 
intelligence. Fremantle's description of Stuart's move- 
ments does not suggest much of the latter quality. " He 
seems to roam over the country at his own discretion, 
and always gives a good account of himself, turning up 
at the right moment, and hitherto he has not got him- 
self into any serious trouble." 25 Later, more studious 
observers do not take quite the same view. One should 



J. E. B. STUART 43 

read the whole of the Prussian colonel Scheibert's ac- 
count of Stuart's thorough planning, his careful calcula- 
tion, his exact methods of procedure. " Before Stuart 
undertook any movement, he spared nothing in the way 
of preparation which might make it succeed. He in- 
formed himself as exactly as possible by scouts and 
spies, himself reconnoitred with his staff, often far be- 
yond the outposts, had his engineer officers constantly 
fill out and improve the rather inadequate maps and as- 
certain the practicability of roads, fords, etc. In short, 
he omitted no precaution and spared no pains or effort 
to secure the best possible results for such undertakings 
as he planned ; therefore he was in the saddle almost as 
long again as his men." 26 Similar testimony can be 
gathered incidentally everywhere in Stuart's letters and 
reports, proving that he was no chance roamer, but 
went where he planned to go and came back when he 
intended. For instance, he writes of the Peninsular oper- 
ations : "It is proper to remark here that the com- 
manding general had, on the occasion of my late expe- 
dition to the Pamunkey, imparted to me his design of 
bringing Jackson down upon the enemy's right flank 
and rear, and directed that I should examine the country 
with reference to its practicability for such a movement. 
I therefore had studied the features of the country very 
thoroughly and knew exactly how to conform my move- 
ments to Jackson's route." ^^ 

On the strength of these larger military qualities it has 



44 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

sometimes been contended that Stuart should have had 
an even more responsible command than fell to him and 
that Lee should have retained him at the head of Jack- 
son's corps after Jackson's death. Certainly Lee can have 
expressed no higher opinion of any one : " A more zealous, 
ardent, brave and devoted soldier than Stuart the Con- 
federacy cannot have." ^s Johnston called him "calm, 
firm, acute, active, and enterprising, I know of no one more 
competent than he to estimate occurrences at their true 
value." 29 Longstreet, hitting Jackson as well as praising 
Stuart, said : " His death was possibly a greater loss to the 
Confederate army than that of the swift-moving General 
Stonewall Jackson." ^o Among foreign authorities Schei- 
bert writes that " General von Schmidt, the regenerator of 
our [Prussian] cavalry tactics, has told me that Stuart was 
the model cavalry leader of this century and has ques- 
tioned me very often about his mode of fighting." " And 
Captain Battine thinks that he should have had Jackson's 
place. 32 Finally, Alexander, sanest of Confederate writers, 
expresses the same view strongly and definitely: "I 
always thought it an injustice to Stuart and a loss to the 
army that he was not from that moment co7itinued in com- 
mand of Jackson^ s corps. He had won the right to it. I 
believe he had all of Jackson's genius and dash and origi- 
nality, without that eccentricity of character which some- 
times led to disappointment. Jackson's spirit and inspira- 
tion were uneven. Stuart, however, possessed the rare 
quality of being always equal to himself at his very bestT ^3 



J. E. B. STUART 45 

This is magnificent praise, coming from such a source. 
Nevertheless, I find it hard to question Lee's judgment. 
There was nothing in the world to prevent his giving 
Stuart the position, if he thought him qualified. It is not 
absolutely certain how Stuart would have carried inde- 
pendent command. I can hardly imagine Davis, even 
early in the war, writing of Jackson as he did of Stuart : 
" The letter of General Hill painfully impresses me with 
that which has before been indicated — a want of vigi- 
lance and intelligent observation on the part of General 
Stuart." 34 Major Bigelow, who knows the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville as well as any one living, does not judge Stu- 
art's action so favorably as Alexander. And Cooke, who 
adored Stuart and served constantly under him, says : "At 
Chancellorsville, when he succeeded Jackson, the troops, 
although quite enthusiastic about him, complained that 
he led them too recklessly against artillery ; and it is 
hard for those who knew the man to believe that, as an 
army commander, he would have consented to a strictly 
defensive campaign. Fighting was a necessity of his 
blood, and the slow movements of infantry did not suit 
his genius." ^^ 

May it not be also that Lee thought Stuart indispen- 
sable where he was and believed it would be as difficult 
to replace him as Jackson ? Most of Stuart's correspond- 
ence has perished and we are obliged to gather its tenor 
from letters written to him, which is much like listening 
to a one-sided conversation over the telephone. From 



46 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

one of Lee's letters, however, it is fairly evident that 
neither he nor Stuart himself had seriously considered 
the latter's taking Jackson's place. Lee writes : " I am 
obliged to you for your views as to the successor of the 
great and good Jackson. Unless God in his mercy will 
raise us up one, I do not know what we shall do. I 
agree with you on the subject, and have so expressed 
myself." ^^ 

In any event, what his countrymen will always remem- 
ber of Stuart is the fighting figure, the glory of battle, 
the sudden and tumultuous fury of charge and onset. 

And what above all distinguishes him in this is his 
splendid joy in it. Others fought with clenched fist and 
set teeth, rejoicing, perhaps, but with deadly determina- 
tion of lip and brow. He laughed and sang. His blue eye 
sparkled and his white teeth gleamed. To others it was 
the valley of the shadow of death. To him it was a pic- 
nic and a pleasure party. 

He views everything by its picturesque side, catches 
the theatrical detail which turns terror and death into 
a scenic surprise. " My arrival could not have been 
more fortunately timed, for, arriving after dark, the pon- 
derous march, with the rolling artillery, must have im- 
pressed the enemy's cavalry, watching their rear, with the 
idea of an immense army about to cut off their retreat." " 
He rushed gayly into battle, singing, " Old Joe Hooker, 
won't you come out of the Wilderness?" or his favorite 
of favorites, " If you want to have a good time, jine the 



J. E. B. STUART 47 

cavalry." When he is riding off, as it were into the 
mouth of hell, his adjutant asks, "How long? " and he 
answers, as Touchstone might, with a bit of old ballad, 
" It may be for years and it may be for ever." ^s m^ clear 
laughter, in the sternest crises, echoes through dusty war 
books, like a silver bell. As he sped back from his Pen- 
insular raid, the Union troops were close upon him and 
the swollen Chickahominy in front, impassable, it seemed. 
Stuart thought a moment, pulling at his beard. Then he 
found the remains of an old bridge and set his men to 
rebuild it. " While the men were at work upon it, Stuart 
was lying down on the bank of the stream, in the gayest 
humor I ever saw, laughing at the prank he had played 
on McClellan."39 

It is needless to enlarge on the effect of such a temper, 
such exuberant confidence and cheerfulness in danger, 
on subordinates. It lightened labor, banished fatigue, 
warmed chill limbs and fainting courage. " My men and 
horses are tired, hungry, jaded, but all right," ■^° was the 
last despatch he ever wrote. So long as he was with them, 
they were all right. His very voice was like music, says 
Fitz Lee, " like the silver trumpet of the Archangel." It 
sounded oblivion of everything but glory. His gayety, 
his laughter, were infectious and turned a raid into a 
revel. " That summer night," writes Mosby of the Mc- 
Clellan expedition, " was a carnival of fun I can never 
forget. Nobody thought of danger or sleep, when cham- 
pagne bottles were bursting and wine was flowing in 



48 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

copious streams. All had perfect confidence in their 
leader. . . . The discipline of the soldiers for a while 
gave way to the wild revelry of Comus." ^^ 

And this spirit of adventure, of romance, of buoyant 
optimism and energy, was not merely reserved for occa- 
sions of excitement, was not the triumphant outcome of 
glory and success. It was constant and unfailing. To be- 
gin with, Stuart had a magnificent physique. " Nothing 
seemed strong enough to break down his powerful or- 
ganization of mind and body," ^^ gays his biographer; 
and Mosby, " Although he had been in the saddle two 
days and nights without sleep, he was as gay as a 
lark." ^3 When exhaustion finally fell upon him, he would 
drop off his horse by the roadside, anywhere, sleep for 
an hour, and arise as active as ever. Universal testimony 
proves that he was overcome and disheartened by no 
disaster. He would be thoughtful for a moment, pulling 
at his beard, then seize upon the best decision that pre- 
sented itself and push on. Dreariness sometimes crushes 
those who can well resist actual misfortune. Not Stuart. 
" In the midst of rainstorms, when everybody was rid- 
ing along grum and cowering beneath the flood pour- 
ing down, he would trot on, head up, and singing 
gayly." ^^ 

The list of his personal adventures and achievements 
is endless. He braved capture and death with entire in- 
difference, trusting in his admirable horsemanship, which 
often saved him, trusting in Providence, trusting in no- 



J. E. B. STUART 49 

thing at all but his quick wit and strong arm, curious 
mainly, perhaps, to see what would happen. On one 
occasion he is said to have captured forty-four Union 
soldiers. He was riding absolutely alone and ran into 
them taking their ease in a field. Instantly he chose his 
course. "Throw down your arms or you are all dead 
men." ^^ They were green troops and threw down their 
arms, and Stuart marched the whole squad into camp. 
When duty forbids a choice adventure, he sighs, as might 
Don Quixote : "A scouting party of one hundred and 
fifty lancers had just passed toward Gettysburg. I re- 
gretted exceedingly that my march did not admit of the 
delay necessary to catch them." ^^ 

I have sometimes asked myself how much of this spirit 
of romantic adventure, of knight-errantry, as it were, ia 
Stuart was conscious. Did he, like Claverhouse, read 
Homer and Froissart, and try to realize in modern Vir- 
ginia the heroic deeds, still more, the heroic spirit, of 
antique chivalry? In common with all Southerners, he 
probably knew the prose and poetry of Scott and dreamed 
of the plume of Marmion and the lance of Ivanhoe. He 
must have felt the weight of his name, also, and believed 
that "James Stuart" might be aptly fitted with valorous 
adventure, and knightly deeds, and sudden glory. It is 
extremely interesting to find him writing to Jackson : 
" Did you receive the volume of Napoleon and his 
Maxims I sent you ? " ^^ I should like to own that volume. 
And in his newspaper account of Brown's raid he quotes 



50 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Horace, horribly, but still Horace : Erant fortes ante 
Agamemnona. 

Yet I do not gather that he was much of a student. He 
preferred to live poems rather than read them. The spirit 
of romance, the instinct of the picturesque, was born in 
him and would out anywhere and everywhere. Life was 
a perpetual play, with ever shifting scenes, and gay lime- 
light, and hurrying incident, and passionate climax. 
Again and again he reminds me of a boy playing sol- 
diers. His ambition, his love of glory, was of this order, 
not a bit the ardent, devouring, frowning, far-sighted 
passion of Jackson, but a jovial sense of pleasant things 
that can be touched and heard and tasted here, to-day. 
He had a childlike, simple vanity which all his biogra- 
phers smile at, liked parade, display, and pomp and gor- 
geousness, utterly differing in this from Jackson, who was 
too proud, or Lee, who was too lofty. Stuart rode fine 
horses, never was seen on an inferior animal.^^ He wore 
fine clothes, all that his position justified, perhaps a little 
more. Here is Fitz Lee's picture of him : " His strong 
figure, his big brown beard, his piercing, laughing blue 
eye, the drooping hat and black feather, the ' fighting 
jacket' as he termed it, the tall cavalry boots, forming 
one of the most jubilant and striking figures in the war." ^^ 
And Cooke is even more particular : " His fighting 
jacket shone with dazzling buttons and was covered with 
gold braid ; his hat was looped up with a golden star, 
and decorated with a black ostrich plume ; his fine buff 



J. E. B. STUART 51 

gauntlets reached to the elbow ; around his waist was 
tied a splendid yellow sash, and his spurs were of pure 
gold." 5° After this, we appreciate the biographer's as- 
sertion that Stuart was as fond of colors as a boy or girl, 
and elsewhere we read that he never moved without his 
gorgeous red battle-flag which often drew the fire of the 
enemy.^i 

As to the spurs, they were presented to the general by 
the ladies of Baltimore and he took great pride in them, 
signing himself sometimes in his private letters, K.G.S., 
Knight of the Golden Spurs.^^ 

This last touch is perfectly characteristic and the Stuart 
of the pen is precisely the same as the Stuart of the sword. 
He could express himself as simply as Napoleon : " Tell 
General Lee that all is right. Jackson has not advanced, 
but I have; and I am going to crowd them with artillery."^^ 
But usually he did not. Indeed, the severe taste of Lee 
recoiled from his subordinate's fashions of speech : " The 
general deals in the flowery style, as you will perceive, 
if you ever see his reports in detail." ^^ But I love them, 
they ring and resound so with the temper of the man, 
gorgeous scraps of tawdry rhetoric, made charming by 
their riotous sincerity, as with Scott and Dumas. "Their 
brave men behaved with coolness and intrepidity in 
danger, unswerving resolution before difficulties, and 
stood unappalled before the rushing torrent of the Chick- 
ahominy, with the probability of an enemy at their heels 
armed with the fury of a tigress robbed of her whelps." ^^ 



52 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Could anything be worse from Lee's point of view? But 
it does put some life into an official report. Or take this 
Homeric picture of a charge, which rushes like a half- 
dozen stanzas of " Chevy Chase " : " Lieutenant Rob- 
bins, handling it in the most skilful manner, managed to 
clear the way for the march with little delay, and infused 
by a sudden dash at a picket such a wholesome terror 
that it never paused to take a second look. . . . On, on 
dashed Robbins, here skirting a field, there leaping a 
fence or ditch, and clearing the woods beyond." ^^ 

When I read these things, I cannot but remember 
Madame de Sevigne's fascinating comment on the his- 
torical novels of her day. "The style of La Calprenede 
is detestable in a thousand ways : long-winded, romantic 
phrases, ill-chosen words, I admit it all. I agree that it is 
detestable ; yet it holds me like glue. The beauty of the 
sentiments, the violence of the passions, the grandeur of 
the events, and the miraculous success of the hero's re- 
doubtable sword — it sweeps me away as if I were a 
child." 

And Stuart's was a real sword ! 

Then, too, as in Shakespearean tragedy or modern 
melodrama, the tension, in Stuart's case, is constantly 
relieved by hearty, wholesome, cheery laughter, which 
shook his broad shoulders and sparkled in his blue eyes. 
See what a strange comedy his report makes of this lurid 
night scene, in which another might have found only 
shadow and death: 'Tt so far succeeded as to get pos- 



J. E. B. STUART 53 

session of his [General Bartlett's] headquarters at one 
o'clock at night, the general having saved himself by- 
precipitate flight in his nether garments. The head- 
quarters flag was brought away. No prisoners were at- 
tempted to be taken, the party shooting down every one 
within reach. Some horses breaking loose near head- 
quarters ran through an adjacent regimental camp, caus- 
ing the greatest commotion, mid firing and yelling and 
cries of ' Halt ! ' * Rally ! ' mingling in wild disorder, and 
ludicrous stampede which beggars description." " Can't 
you hear him laugh ? 

It must not be concluded from this that Stuart was cruel 
in his jesting. Where gentleness and sympathy were really 
called for, all the evidence shows that no man could give 
more. But he believed that the rough places are made 
smooth and the hard places soft and the barren places 
green and smiling by genial laughter. Who shall say 
that he was wrong? Therefore he would have his jest, 
with inferior and superior, with friend and enemy. Even 
the sombre Jackson was not spared. Once he had floun- 
dered into winter-quarters oddly decorated. Stuart sug- 
gested "that a drawing of the apartment should be 
made, with the race-horses, gamecocks, and terrier in bold 
relief, the picture to be labelled: 'View of the winter- 
quarters of General Jackson, affording an insight into 
the tastes and character of the individual.' " ^^ And Jack- 
son enjoyed it. 

When it came to his adversaries, Stuart's fun was 



54 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

unlimited. Everybody knows his telegraphed complaint 
to the United States Commissary Department that the 
mules he had been getting lately were most unsatisfac- 
tory and he wished they would provide a better quality. 
Even more amusing is the correspondence that occurred 
at Lewinsville. One of Stuart's old comrades wrote, ad- 
dressing him by his West Point nickname. ** My dear 
Beauty, — I am sorry that circumstances are such that 
I can't have the pleasure of seeing you, although so near 
you. Griffin says he would like to have you dine with 
him at Willard's at 5 o'clock on Saturday next. Keep 
your Black Horse off me, if you please. Yours, etc., 
Orlando M. Poe." On the back of this was penciled in 
Stuart's writing: "I have the honor to report that 'cir- 
cumstances ' were such that they could have seen me if 
they had stopped to look behind, and I answered both 
at the cannon's mouth. Judging from his speed. Griffin 
surely left for Washington to hurry up that dinner." ^9 

I had an old friend who adored the most violent melo- 
drama. When the curtain and his tears had fallen to- 
gether, he would sigh and murmur, " Now let 's have a 
little of that snare-drum music." Such was Stuart. " It 
might almost be said that music was his passion," writes 
his biographer.^" I doubt, however, whether he dealt 
largely in the fugues of Bach. His favorites, in the seri- 
ous order, are said to have been "The dew is on the 
blossom," and " Sweet Evelina." But his joy was the up- 
roarious "If you get there before I do" ; or his precious 



J. E. B. STUART ; 55 

"If you want to have a good time, jine the cavalry." 
He liked to live in the blare of trumpets and the crash 
of cymbals, liked to have his nerves tingle and his blood 
leap to a merry hunts-up or a riotous chorus, liked to 
have the high strain of war's melodrama broken by the 
sudden crackle of the snare-drum. His banjo-player, 
Sweeney, was as near to him as an aide-de-camp, fol- 
lowed him everywhere. " Stuart wrote his most impor- 
tant correspondence with the rattle of the gay instru- 
ment stunning everybody, and would turn round from 
his work, burst into a laugh, and join uproariously in 
Sweeney's chorus." ^^ 

And dance was as keen a spice to peril as song and 
laughter. To fight all day and dance all night was a 
good day's work to this creature of perfect physique and 
inexhaustible energy. If his staff officers could not keep 
pace with him and preferred a little sleep, the general 
did not like it at all. What? Here is — or was — a gay 
town, and pretty girls. Just because we are here to-day 
and gone to-morrow, shall we not fleet the time care- 
lessly, as they did in the golden world? And the girls 
are got together, and a ball is organized, and the fun 
grows swifter and swifter. Perhaps a fortunate officer 
picks the prettiest and is about to stand up with her. 
Stuart whispers in his ear that a hurried message must 
be carried, laughs his gay laugh, and slips into the vacant 
place. Then an orderly hurries in, covered with dust. 
The enemy are upon us. " The officers rushed to their 



56 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

weapons and called for their horses, panic-stricken fathers 
and mothers endeavored to collect around them their 
bewildered children, while the young ladies ran to and 
fro in most admired despair. General Stuart maintained 
his accustomed coolness and composure. Our horses 
were immediately saddled, and in less than five min- 
utes we were in rapid gallop to the front." ^2 Oh, what 
a life 1 

You divine that with such a temperament Stuart would 
love women. So he did. Not that he let them interfere 
with duty. He would have heartily accepted the pro- 
found doctrine of Enobarbus in regard to the fair : "It 
were pity to cast them away for nothing ; yet between 
them and a great cause they should be esteemed as 
nothing." Stuart arrested hundreds of ladies, says his 
biographer, and remained inexorable to their petitions. 
Cooke's charming account of one of these arrests should 
be read in full : how the fair captives first raved, and 
then listened, and then laughed, and then were charmed 
by the mellifluous Sweeney and the persuasive general, 
and at last departed with kissed hands and kindly hearts, 
leaving Stuart to explain to his puzzled aide, who inquired 
why he took so much pains : " Don't you understand ? 
When those ladies arrived they were mad enough with 
me to bite my head off, and I determined to put them in 
good humor before they left me." ^^ 

But Cooke dresses his viands. I prefer the following 
taste of Stuart and girls and duty, as we get it unspiced 



J. E. B. STUART 57 

from the rough-spoken common soldier: "General Lee 
would come up and spend hours studying the situation 
with his splendid glasses ; and the glorious Stuart would 
dash up, always with a lady, and a pretty one, too. I 
wonder if the girl is yet alive who rode the general's fine 
horse and raced with him to charge our station. When 
they had reached the level platform, and Stuart had left 
her in care of one of us and took the other off to one side 
and questioned the very sweat out of him about the 
enemy's position, he was General Stuart then, but when 
he got back and lifted the beauty into the saddle and 
rode off humming a breezy air . . . he was Stuart the 
beau." 64 

And the women liked Stuart. It was a grand thing to 
be the first officer in the Confederate cavalry, with a blue 
eye and a fair beard, and all gold, like Horace's Lydia, 
from hat to spurs. When he rode singing and laughing 
into a little town, " by river or seashore," they flocked to 
meet him, young and old, and touched his garments, and 
begged his buttons and kissed his gloved hands, until 
he suggested that his cheeks were available, and then 
they kissed those, young and old alike. ^^ They showered 
him with flowers also, buried him under nosegays and 
garlands, till he rode like old god Bacchus or the queen 
of May. What an odd fashion of making war ! And the 
best I have met with is, that one day Stuart described one 
of these occurrences to his great chieftain. " I had to 
wear her garland, till I was out of sight," apologized the 



58 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

young cavalier. " Why are n't you wearing it now ? " re- 
torted Lee. Isn't that admirable ? I verily believe that if 
any young woman had had the unimaginable audacity 
to throw a garland over Lee, he would have worn it 
through the streets of Richmond itself. ^^ 

You say, then, this Stuart was dissipated, perhaps, a 
scapegrace, a rioter, imitating Rupert and Murat in other 
things than great cavalry charges. That is the curious 
point. The man was nothing of the sort. With all his in- 
stinct of revelry, he had no vices, a very Puritan of laugh- 
ter. He liked pretty girls everywhere ; but when he was 
charged with libertinism, he answered, in the boldness 
of innocence, " That person does not live who can say 
that I ever did anything improper of that description " ; ^^ 
and he liked his wife better than any other pretty girl. 
He married her when he was twenty-two years old and 
his last wish was that she might reach him before he 
died. His few letters to her that have been printed are 
charming in their playful affection. He adored his chil- 
dren also ; in short, was a pattern of domesticity. He did, 
indeed, love his country more, and telegraphed to his 
wife, when she called him to his dying daughter's bed- 
side, "My duty to the country must be performed be- 
fore I can give way to the feelings of a father" ; but 
the child's death was a cruel blow to him. With his inti- 
mates he constantly referred to her, and when he himself 
was dying, he whispered, " I shall soon be with my little 
Flora again." ^8 



J. E. B. STUART 59 

" I never saw him touch a card," writes one who was 
very near him, *' and he never dreamed of uttering an 
oath under any provocation, nor would he permit it at his 
headquarters." ^^ We are assured by many that he never 
drank and an explicit statement of his own on the subject 
is reported : " I promised my mother in my childhood 
never to touch ardent spirits and a drop has never passed 
my lips, except the wine of the communion." ^o 

As the last words show, he had religion as well as 
morals. He joined the Methodist church when he was 
fifteen ; later the Episcopal. When he was twenty-four, 
he sent money home to his mother to aid in the building 
of a church. He carried his Bible with him always. In 
his reports religion is not obtrusive. When it does occur, 
it is evidently sincere. " The Lord of Hosts was plainly 
fighting on our side, and the solid walls of Federal in- 
fantry melted away before the straggling, but nevertheless 
determined, onset of our infantry columns." ''^ " Believing 
that the hand of God was clearly manifested in the signal 
deliverance of my command from danger, and the crown- 
ing success attending it, I ascribe to Him the praise, the 
honor, and the glory." ^^ He inclined to strictness in the 
observance of Sunday. Captain Colston writes me that 
when twelve struck of a Saturday night Stuart held up 
his hand relentlessly and stopped song and dance in their 
full tide, though youth and beauty begged for just one 
more. He was equally scrupulous in the field, though, in 
his feeling of injury because the enemy were not, I seem 



6o CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

to detect his habitual touch of humor : " The next morn- 
ing being the Sabbath, I recognized my obligation to do 
no duty other than what was absolutely necessary, and 
determined, so far as possible, to devote it to rest. Not 
so the enemy, whose guns about 8 A.M. showed that he 
would not observe it." ^^ 

I have no doubt that Stuart's religion was inward as 
well as outward and remoulded his heart. But, after all, 
he was but little over thirty when he died, and I love to 
trace in him the occasional working of the old Adam 
which had such lively play in the bosom of many an offi- 
cer who was unjustly blamed or missed some well-de- 
served promotion. Stuart's own letters are too few to 
afford much insight of this kind. But here again we get 
that one-sided correspondence with Lee which is so teas- 
ingly suggestive. On one occasion Lee writes : " The 
expression 'appropriated by the Stuart Horse Artillery' 
was not taken from a report of Colonel Baldwin, nor in- 
tended in any objectionable sense, but used for want of 
a better phrase, without any intention on my part of 
wounding." ^^ And again, after Chancellorsville : " As 
regards the closing remarks of your note, I am at a loss 
to understand their reference or to know what has given 
rise to them. In the management of the difficult opera- 
tions at Chancellorsville, which you so promptly under- 
took and creditably performed, I saw no errors to cor- 
rect, nor has there been a fit opportunity to commend 
your conduct. I prefer your acts to speak for themselves, 



J. E. B. STUART 6i 

nor does your character or reputation require bolstering 
up by out-of-place expressions of my opinion." ^^ 

But by far the most interesting human revelation of 
this kind is one letter of Stuart's own, written to justify 
himself against some aspersions of General Trimble. 
With the right or wrong of the case we are not con- 
cerned ; simply with the fascinating study of Stuart's 
state of mind. He begins evidently with firm restraint 
and a Christian moderation : " Human memory is frail I 
know." But the exposure of his wrongs heats his blood, 
as he goes on, and spurs him, though he still endeavors 
to check himself : " It is true I am not in the habit of 
giving orders, particularly to my seniors in years, in a 
dictatorial and authoritative manner, and my manner 
very likely on this occasion was more restive than im- 
perative ; indeed, I may have been content to satisfy 
myself that the dispositions which he himself proposed 
accorded with my own ideas, without any blustering 
show of orders to do this or that. . . . General Trimble 
says I did not reach the place until seven or eight 
o'clock. I was in plain view all the time, and rode 
through, around, and all about the place soon after its 
capture. General Trimble is mistaken." ^^ Nay, in his 
stammering eagerness to right himself, his phrases, usu- 
ally so crisp and clear, stumble and fall over each other : 
"In the face of General Trimble's positive denial of 
sending me such a message, 'that he would prefer wait- 
ing until daylight,' or anything like it, while my recol- 



62 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

lection is clear that I did receive such a message, and 
received it as coming from General Trimble, yet, as he 
is so positive to not having sent such a message or 
anything like it, I feel bound to believe that either the 
message was misrepresented or made up by the mes- 
senger, or that it was a message received from General 
Robertson, whose sharpshooters had been previously 
deployed." " 

A real man, you see, like the rest of us ; but a noble 
one, and lovable. Fortunate, also, in his death as in his 
life. For he was not shot down in the early days, like 
Jackson and Sidney Johnston, when it seemed as if his 
great aid might have changed destiny. He had done all 
a man in his position could do. When he went, hope too 
was going. He was spared the long, weary days of 
Petersburg, spared the bitter cup of Appomattox, spared 
the cruel domination of the conqueror, spared what was 
perhaps worst of all, the harsh words and reproaches 
which flew too hotly where there should have been 
nothing but love and silence. He slept untroubled in his 
glory, while his countrymen mourned and Lee " yearned 
for him." His best epitaph has been written by a mag- 
nanimous opponent: "Deep in the hearts of all true 
cavalrymen. North and South, will ever burn a sentiment 
of admiration mingled with regret for this knightly sol- 
dier and generous man." ^^ 



Ill 

James Longstreet 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, January 8, 1821. 

Graduated at West Point, 1842. 

Second Lieutenant, July i, 1842. 

Served in Texas during 1845-46. 

Served in Mexican War, 1846-47. 

First Lieutenant, February 23, 1847. 

Married Maria Louise Garland, March 8, 1848. 

Served in West till 1861. 

Captain, December 7, 1852. 

Major, July 19, 1858. 

Major-General in Confederate Army, 1861. 

Served with Army of Northern Virginia till April, 1863. 

Independent command south of James River, April, May, 1863. 

With Army of Northern Virginia till autumn of 1863. 

Served in Tennessee till January, 1864. 

With Army of Northern Virginia till close of war. 

After war became a Republican. 

Minister to Turkey, 1 880. 

Married Helen Dortch, September 8, 1897. 

Died, January 2, 1904. 




JAMES LONGSTREET 



Ill 

JAMES LONGSTREET 

LONGSTREET had half New Jersey blood and probably 
part Dutch. It shows in him. He is far more the mod- 
ern, practical nineteenth-century American than most of 
his fellows. What Southern romance he has sits awk- 
wardly and is mixed with mocking. He reminds you 
again and again of Grant and Sherman in his bulldog 
pugnacity and tenacity, his brusque, sharp fashions of 
hitting right out at men and measures. Southern easy- 
going ways and shiftlessness vexed him : " Our people 
have been so accustomed to having things at their hands 
that they seem at a loss for resources when emergencies 
arise. ' Where there is a will there is a way ' of over- 
coming all human obstacles. It is left for us to find it 
out." 1 

He was hard-headed, solid, stolid; and he looked it. 
" A thick-set, determined-looking man," 2 says Freman- 
tle. And Pollard describes his appearance as " not en- 
gaging. It was decidedly sombre ; the bluish-gray eye 
was intelligent, but cold ; a very heavy brown beard was 
allowed to grow untrimmed ; he seldom spoke unneces- 
sarily ; his weather-stained clothes, splashed boots, and 
heavy black hat gave a certain fierce aspect to the 
man." ^ His health, vigor, power of supporting fatigue 



66 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

were remarkable. " The iron endurance of General Long- 
street is most extraordinary : he seems to require neither 
food nor sleep." ^ 

As a fighter he was superb, the best fighter in the Army 
of Northern Virginia, the soldiers called him. This per- 
haps refers more to character than to brains, as it is 
admitted that he was no great student at West Point or 
anywhere else. In Mexico he fought most creditably, 
side by side with Grant and other contemporaries. From 
Bull Run to Appomattox he was always where the fight- 
ing was hottest. His soldiers believed in him and trusted 
him. He spoke straight out to them, as if he meant it. 
Sometimes it was with a heavy sarcasm, as at Gettys- 
burg, to an officer who complained of not being able to 
bring up his troops: "Very well, never mind, then, Gen- 
eral ; just let them remain where they are ; the enemy 's 
going to advance, and will spare you the trouble." ^ 
More often he gave them sound, direct, practical advice, 
of the kind to put heart into a man : " Let officers and 
men, even under the most formidable fire, preserve a 
quiet demeanor and self-possessed temper. Keep cool, 
obey orders, and aim low. Remember, while you are 
doing this, and driving the enemy before you, your 
comrades may be relied upon to support you on either 
side, and are in turn relying upon you." ^ 

Such advice coming from the War Department might 
not have amounted to much. Coming from a man who 
was as cool in battle as in a ballroom, it must have been 



JAMES LONGSTREET 67 

almost as if he laid a hand on your shoulder. How im- 
perturbable he was is shown by many witnesses, notably 
Fremantle : " No person could have been more calm 
or self-possessed than General Longstreet under these 
trying circumstances [after Gettysburg], aggravated as 
they now were by the movements of the enemy, who 
began to show a strong disposition to advance. I could 
now appreciate the term bulldog which I had heard 
applied to him by the soldiers. Difficulties seem to make 
no other impression upon him than to make him a lit- 
tle more savage." ^ He may not have felt the dancing 
ecstasy with which Stuart charged and which Long- 
street himself admirably describes in another : " He 
came into battle as gayly as a beau, and seemed to re- 
ceive orders which threw him into more exposed posi- 
tions with peculiar delight." 8 But he was always ready 
to face any exposure — too ready. " Every one deplores 
that Longstreet will expose himself in such a reck- 
less manner. To-day he led a Georgian regiment in a 
charge against a battery, hat in hand and in front of 
everybody." ^ 

The same imperturbable coolness that distinguished 
Longstreet in actual fighting characterized him as a 
leader. He was never anxious, never flurried. Victory 
could not over-excite him with triumph, nor defeat with 
confusion. He made every preparation, took every pre- 
caution, was ready for difficulties and indifferent to dan- 
gers. Unfortunately, however, consummate generalship 



68 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

requires something more than imperturbability. It re- 
quires brains and speed. Had Longstreet these? His 
work as an independent commander suggests some 
doubt. Intelligence of a certain order, the solid, firm, 
Dutch grasp of a situation, and common sense in the 
handling of it, can never be denied him. But quick in- 
sight, long penetration, the sudden conception of what 
is daring to be done and not too daring, — in short, 
a brain like Jackson's, I do not think he had. As to 
speed there will be less question. Even Lee is said to 
have remarked, ** Longstreet is the hardest man to move 
in my army." In every case the general was able to 
give a good reason for not arriving in time. But Jack- 
son, when at his best, arrived in time in spite of good 
reasons. 

Both these defects and many of Longstreet's excel- 
lences are intimately bound up with one strongly marked 
trait which is often an excellence but runs into a defect 
too easily ; I mean a singular, an unfailing, an almost 
unlimited self-confidence. Self-confidence does nearly all 
the great things that are done in the world. " Trust thy- 
self," says Emerson ; " every heart vibrates to that iron 
string." Doubt of one's powers, doubt of one's nerve, 
dread of responsibility — these weaknesses will paralyze 
the keenest perceptions, the finest intelligence. But self- 
confidence, to achieve the highest, must be tempered 
with insight and sympathy. A man must trust himself, 
but he must trust others. Before he decides, resolves, 



JAMES LONGSTREET 69 

executes, he must listen. His own judgment must pre- 
vail with him ; but it must be his own judgment quali- 
fied, enriched, by the judgment of those wiser, or even 
less wise. No one can impose his own personality, how- 
ever solid and sturdy, on the whole world. - 
This is what Longstreet tried to do, with exquisite and 
naive unconsciousness. And this quality of an immense 
self-confidence runs through his whole career with a 
steadiness which is very peculiar, very instructive — and 
very unfortunate. Note that Johnston's trouble was an 
over-sensitive pride. This is not Longstreet's main trou- 
ble ; nor was he largely stirred by wounded ambitions. 
*' I am not prompted by any desire to do, or to attempt 
to do, great things. I only wish to do what I regard as 
my duty — give you the full benefit of my views." ^° 
And again : " If there is no duty to which I can be as- 
signed on this side of the Mississippi River without dis- 
placing an ofScer, I will cheerfully accept service in the 
trans-Mississippi Department." ^^ Note also that it is not 
a foolish conceit, or pig-headed pride of opinion. Once 
convince the man that he was in the wrong and he 
would have been perfectly ready to say, " All my fault," 
and begin over again. But you never could convince him 
that he was wrong. There was one way to see the ques- 
tion in hand and that was the way he saw it, one way 
to act and that was the way he acted. Other ways and 
other views were incomplete, or unenlightened, or sim- 
ply stupid. No single quotation can sum up this attitude, 



70 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

naturally. It will, I think, appear in overwhelming sig- 
nificance, as we go on. Page after page of Longstreet's 
book is stamped with it. But perhaps one paragraph 
near the beginning is as characteristic as any. " Speak- 
ing of the impending struggle [spring of 1861], I was 
asked as to the length of the war, and said, *At least 
three years, and if it holds for five you may begin to 
look for a dictator,' at which Lieutenant Ryan, of the 
Seventh Infantry, said, *If we have to have a dictator, I 
hope that you may be the man.' " ^2 No doubt, for the 
good of the country, Longstreet himself hoped that he 
would be the man. 

It is in his relation to Lee that this stolid self-confidence 
of Longstreet manifests itself most interestingly. The two 
men loved each other. Lee showed his affection for his 
second in command more frankly and directly than for 
almost any one else, even Jackson. " My old war-horse," 
he called him, perhaps characterizing the subordinate 
more fully than he meant. If so, Longstreet was quite 
oblivious of it and refers to the phrase with proud com- 
placency, as he does to another point which most of us 
are inclined to view a little differently, that is, the fact 
that "on his march he [Lee] usually had his headquar- 
ters near mine." ^' Lee has other words, however, of a 
less equivocal nature. Thus, he writes to the general in 
the West: "I think you can do better than I could. 
It was with that view I urged your going." !■* But he 
longs to have him back : " I missed you dreadfully and 



JAMES LONGSTREET 71 

your brave corps. Your cheerful face and strong arm 
would have been invaluable. I hope you will soon return 
to me." 15 

Longstreet's love for his great chief was equally fervent 
Speaking of him after the war he says: "The relations 
existing between us were affectionate, confidential, and 
even tender, from first to last. There was never a harsh 
word between us." ^^ Writing to Lee from the West he 
expresses feeling as evidently deep as it is genuine : " All 
that we have to be proud of has been accomplished under 
your eye and under your orders. Our affections for you 
are stronger, if it is possible for them to be stronger, 
than our admiration for you." ^^ And Fremantle, who had 
observed both men closely, corroborates these words in 
the most charming manner: "It is impossible to please 
Longstreet more than by praising Lee. I believe these 
two generals to be as little ambitious and as thoroughly 
unselfish as any men in the world." ^^ 

But Longstreet did not propose to allow judgment to 
be hoodwinked by affection. Not for him was the atti- 
tude so passionately expressed by Jackson: "General 
Lee is a phenomenon. I would follow him blindfold." 
On the contrary, the commander of the First Corps was 
keenly aware of his chief's defects and has recorded them 
mercilessly for posterity. " In the field his characteristic 
fault was headlong combativeness. . .. . In the immediate 
presence of the enemy General Lee's mind, at all other 
times calm and clear, became excited," ^^ These defects 



72 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

it was naturally the duty of an affectionate lieutenant to 
watch for and remedy in every possible way. And Long- 
street watched. 

From the first day Lee took command we have his 
subordinate's delightful accounts of the way in which he 
advised, suggested, as some might almost say, dictated. 
It was Longstreet who conceived the plan by which Jack- 
son was to be called from the Valley that McClellan 
might be driven from the Peninsula ; and if Jackson had 
been at all equal to the occasion, a great triumph would 
have been achieved.^o It was Longstreet who found Lee 
hesitating about going into Maryland on account of lack 
of supplies. "But I reminded him of my experiences in 
Mexico, where sometimes we were obliged to live two 
or three days on green corn. . . . Finally he determined 
to go on." 21 It was Longstreet who pointed out to his 
commander the folly of the Harper's Ferry scheme and 
supposed it was abandoned. But he could not be on the 
watch all the time and the pestilent Jackson took ad- 
vantage of his absence to impose on a mind always too 
easily led.22 Later Longstreet did his best to remedy a 
bad state of things. "Lee listened patiently enough, but 
did not change his plans, and directed that I should go 
back the next day and make a stand at the mountain. 
After lying down, my mind was still on the battle of the 
next day, and I was so impressed with the thought that 
it would be impossible for us to do anything at South 
Mountain . . . that I rose and, striking a light, wrote a 



JAMES LONGSTREET 73 

note to General Lee, urging him to order Hill away 
and concentrate at Sharpsburg. To that note I got no 
answer." 23 Dq you wonder why? 

But Gettysburg is the best of all. And observe, I take 
no part in the controversy as to what Longstreet actually 
did. It does not become an outsider and a civilian to do 
so. His judgment as to possibilities before and as to 
events after may have been wise, may have been correct. 
What interests me solely is Longstreet's character as 
displayed in Longstreet's own words. 

To begin with, then, he is opposed to the campaign 
from the start, believing that the main operations should 
be carried on in the West. However, finding Lee unwill- 
ing to agree to this, Longstreet permits his commander 
to enter upon his project. " I then accepted his proposal 
to make a campaign into Pennsylvania, provided it 
should be offensive in strategy, but defensive in tactics." ^4 
Judge of his disgust when they found themselves at 
Gettysburg and the commander ventured to overstep the 
lines which his mentor had laid down for him. " I sug- 
gested that the course seemed to be at variance with the 
plan of the campaign that had been agreed on before 
leaving Fredericksburg. He said, * If the enemy is there 
to-morrow, we must attack him.' ... I said that it 
seemed to me that if, during our council at Fredericks- 
burg, we had described the position in which we de- 
sired to get the two armies, we could not have expected 
to get the enemy in a better position for us than he then 



74 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

occupied. . . . He, however, did not seem to abandon 
the idea of attack on the next day." ^5 

And they attacked and failed all along the line, be- 
cause Longstreet's heart was not in it, say his ene- 
mies, because success was impossible, says Longstreet 
himself. 

And the scene was renewed again the day following, 
Lee deciding, ordering, Longstreet protesting, with im- 
perturbable confidence in his own judgment, and snubbed 
in a fashion made tenfold more dramatic by its being Lee 
who did it and Longstreet who recorded it, apparently 
without the dimmest perception of what it meant [italics 
mine] : " I said : ' General, I have been a soldier all my 
life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by 
couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and 
armies, and should know as well as any one what soldiers 
can do. It is my opinion that no 15,000 men ever ar- 
rayed for battle can take that position,' pointing to 
Cemetery Hill. General Lee in reply to this ordered me 
to prepare Picket^ s division for the attackr ^^ 

When everything was over, Lee declared, with divine 
humility, that it was all his fault. " Fine," says Long- 
street, in effect, *' especially as it was." 

In the autumn of 1863 Longstreet went West. He had 
long felt that he was needed there and he finally pre- 
vailed on Davis and Lee to let him go. It would be im- 
possible to surpass the serene confidence with which he 
viewed this undertaking. Note also that he disclaims. 



JAMES LONGSTREET 75 

and no doubt sincerely, all thought of personal ambition 
in the matter [italics mine] : *' If my corps cannot go 
West, I think that we might accomplish something by 
giving me Jenkins, Wise, and Cooke's brigades, and 
putting me in General Bragg's place, and giving him my 
corps. . . . We would surely ricn no risk in such a change 
and we might gain a great deal. I feel that I am influ- 
enced by no personal motive in making this suggestion ; 
and will most cheerfully give up, when we have a fair 
prospect of holding our Western country. I doubt if 
General Bragg has great confidence in his troops or 
himself either. He is not likely to do a great deal 
for us." 27 

He was not put in Bragg's place, however, but under 
Bragg's orders, and therefore naturally was unable to 
accomplish all the great things that he had counted on. 
If he had found it difficult to place much reliance on Lee, 
how was it to be expected that he should place any on 
Bragg ? He did not, and said so. Here again, I do not 
think there was any set purpose of malice or mischief- 
making. Bragg was wrong. Longstreet was right. This 
must be so obvious to every one that outspoken com- 
ment could hardly make it any plainer. The effect, how- 
ever, was not happy ; witness Mackall, who was no friend 
to Bragg : " I think Longstreet has done more injury 
to the general than all the others put together. You 
may understand how much influence with his troops a 
remark from a man of his standing would have to the 



76 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

effect that Bragg was not on the field and Lee would 
have been." ^s 

This sort of thing seems incredible in a man of Long- 
street's age, training, and soldierly habits ; but the lan- 
guage of his own letters shows abundantly what his 
attitude was. He writes to Buckner : "As every other 
move had been proposed to the general and rejected or 
put ofE till time made them more convenient, I came to 
the conclusion that this was to be the fate of our army 
— to wait till all good opportunities passed, and then, in 
desperation, to seize upon the least favorable one." 29 

And here again, as at Gettysburg, we can ask nothing 
more characteristic than the little scene that the general 
paints for us, apparently quite unconscious of its signifi- 
cance, but depicting himself and a dozen men of similar 
type that we all know, as effectively as Rembrandt might 
have done : " The only notice my plan received was a 
remark that General Hardee was pleased to make : ' I 
don't think that is a bad idea of Longstreet's.' ... I 
repeated my ideas, but they did not even receive notice. 
It was not till I had repeated them, however, that Gen- 
eral Hardee even noticed me." ^o Unconscious self-inter- 
pretation like this, as with Pepys, amounts to genius. 

No one could attack Bragg without attacking Davis, 
and to Longstreet, Davis — when he was wrong — was no 
more than Bragg. Twice, at least, in full and formal military 
council, the general offered his advice to the President — 
and was snubbed. The first time was early in the war 



JAMES LONGSTREET 77 

before the Peninsular campaign. " From the hasty inter- 
ruption I concluded that my opinion had only been asked 
through polite recognition of my presence, not that it 
was wanted, and said no more." ^i The second time was 
in connection with the movements of Bragg and John- 
ston in the West and involved Lee as well as Longstreet. 
As described by the latter, it is a singularly impressive 
and characteristic incident. He had given his views in 
regard to the situation at some length, and assumes that 
Lee agreed with them. The President did not. " General 
Lee wore his beard full, but neatly trimmed. He pulled 
at it nervously, and more vigorously as time and silence 
grew, till his nervousness was conquered. The profound 
quiet of a minute or more seemed an hour. When he 
spoke, it was of other matters, but the air was troubled 
by his efforts to surrender hopeful anticipations to the 
caprice of empirics. He rose to take leave of the august 
presence, gave his hand to the President, and bowed 
himself out of the council chamber. His assistant went 
through the same forms, and no one approached the 
door to ofTer parting courtesy," ^2 Even after this Long- 
street could not get the responsibility of the matter off 
his mind. On returning to the West, " it occurred to me 
to write to the President, and try to soften the asperities 
of the Richmond council. ... In reply the President 
sent a rebuke of my delay." ^' 

The most significant element of all in Longstreet's 
Western campaign is his dealings with his own subordi- 



78 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

nates, McLaws, Law, and Robertson. The dramatic 
genius of Sophocles could not have devised a finer cli- 
max than that situation. At Gettysburg, just before, as 
second in command to Lee, the general had thoroughly 
disapproved of his chief's action and had not hesitated 
to say so. Likewise, he had failed to carry out his chief's 
wishes, through either indifference or inability. Lee, with 
supreme generosity, intent on the future, not on the 
past, had accepted the latter solution and found no word 
of fault with his lieutenant's motives in any way whatso- 
ever. 

Then Longstreet goes West and is placed in charge 
of the Knoxville expedition. His second in command, 
McLaws, disapproves of the assault on Fort Loudon, 
exactly as Longstreet disapproved of the assault at Get- 
tysburg. Hear McLaw's own words : " I object to being 
put forward as a blind to draw attention away from the 
main issue, which is the conduct of the campaign in 
East Tennessee by General Longstreet. I assert that the 
enemy could have been brought to an engagement be- 
fore reaching Knoxville ; that the town, if assaulted at 
all, should have been on the first day we arrived or on 
the next at furthest ; that when the assault was made on 
Fort Loudon it was not called for by any line of policy 
whatever." ^4 

If he had been endowed with divination, could he 
have anticipated more perfectly Longstreet's later atti- 
tude with regard to Gettysburg ? 



JAMES LONGSTREET 79 

But how different was Longstreet's treatment of his 
subordinate under these circumstances from Lee's! As 
soon as he suspects disaffection, he writes sharply through 
his aide, '* I am directed to say that throughout the cam- 
paign on which we are engaged you have exhibited a 
want of confidence in the efforts and plans which the 
commanding general has thought proper to adopt, and 
he is apprehensive that this feeling will extend more or 
less to the troops under your command." ^^ When the 
assault is imminent, he insists that previous conviction 
of failure is the surest road to it. " Please urge upon 
your officers the importance of making the assault with 
a determination to succeed. If the assault is made with 
that spirit, I shall feel no doubt of its success." ^e And 
again : " If we go in with the idea that we shall fail, we 
will be sure to do so. But no men who are determined 
to succeed can fail. Let me urge you not to entertain 
such feelings for a moment. Do not let any one fail, or 
any thing." ^7 Imagine how Lee would have liked to say 
that to Longstreet on the morning of July 3, and if he 
had, what Longstreet would have answered. 

When all is over, the general does, indeed, admit to 
the War Department that it may have been his fault : 
" It is fair to infer that the fault is entirely with me, and 
I desire, therefore, that some other commander may be 
tried." ^^ This does not mean, however, that he forgets 
or forgives, so far as his subordinates are concerned. He 
prefers charges against McLaws, Law, and Robertson. 



8o CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

They are tried by a court martial, which only partially 
sustains the commander, and even this insufficient ver- 
dict is reversed by the Richmond authorities. ** The pro- 
ceedings, finding, and sentence of the court are disap- 
proved. Major-General McLaws will at once return to duty 
with his command." ^^ Longstreet rebels and receives an 
even harsher snub from Davis: "General Longstreet has 
seriously offended against good order and military dis- 
cipline in re-arresting an officer who had been released 
by the War Department, without any new offense having 
been committed." ^^ Longstreet has a final word on the 
matter in his book, whether to his own advantage or dis- 
advantage, I leave to the reader's judgment. " Confi- 
dence in the conduct of the war was broken, and with it 
the tone and spirit for battle further impaired by the 
efforts of those in authority to damage, if not pre- 
vent the success of work ordered in their own vital 
interest."'^! 

It might be supposed that, after these varied expe- 
riences, the general would have returned to Lee's supre- 
macy with a saddened and a chastened spirit. I do not 
find this indicated. Through the spring of 1864 and 
later, when he returned to duty after his Wilderness 
wound, he was always cheerfully ready to patronize his 
commander and to give abundant advice, when it was 
asked for and when it was not. " I am pleased at all 
times to have any suggestions that you may make, and 
am gratified to find that you in your numerous duties 



JAMES LONGSTREET 8i 

do not lose sight of these small matters," ^2 js the usual 
tone. Perhaps the most curious suggestion offered is that 
the military authorities should " impress" all the gold in 
the country and use it for the necessities of defense. ^^ 
Unfortunately most of Lee's replies to his subordinate's 
exhortations are lost. We have his comment on this gold 
matter, however, — a gentle reminder that the specie is 
not accumulated in chests which troopers can walk off 
with, but is scattered and hidden all over the Confeder- 
acy. Longstreet, perfectly unconcerned, insists as before : 
" The gold is in the country, and most of it is lying idle. 
Let us take it at once and [use] it to save Richmond 
and end the war." ^^ 

Finally, in considering Longstreet's conduct after the 
war was over, I think we shall find the best excuse or 
explanation for it in this same trait of overmastering 
self-confidence. Here we should turn to Mrs. Long- 
street. It is worth observing that the lives of three of the 
most prominent Southern leaders — Davis, Jackson, and 
Longstreet — have been written by their wives with lov- 
ing eulogy, and that in each case these ladies furnish — 
quite unintentionally — the most striking testimony as 
to their husbands' weaknesses and defects. It is a not- 
able illustration of the old poet's remark, — 

"Those have most power to hurt us that we love ; 
We lay our sleeping lives within their arms." 

Thus, when Mrs. Longstreet insists that her hero, in 
joining the Republican party and accepting government 



82 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

office, sacrificed personal advantage to a spirit of lofty 
patriotism, much as did Lee at the beginning of the war, 
she makes him ridiculous. Her own naive account of the 
activities and the luxury of his last years emphasizes 
this, and the swelling phrases of her affectionate enthusi- 
asm require no comment : *' I love best to think of him, 
not as the warrior leading his legions to victory, but as 
the grand citizen after the war was ended, nobly dedi- 
cating himself to the rehabilitation of his broken people, 
offering a brave man's homage to the flag of the estab- 
lished government, and standing steadfast in all the 
passions, prejudices, and persecutions of that unhappy 
period. It was the love and honor and soul of the man 
crystallized into a being of wonderful majesty, immov- 
able as Gibraltar." ^5 

Verily, "those have most power to hurt us that we 
love." Yet, as to the substance, I think Mrs. Longstreet 
is right, and the many Southerners who accuse her hus- 
band of mere place-hunting, of flattering the conqueror 
for his own aggrandizement, are totally wrong. He was 
patriotic. He did believe that he was doing the best for 
his country. He was a practical American. The war was 
over. The Union must be restored. The sooner it was 
restored, the better. And the more good men that took 
hold to restore it, the better still. The sentiment of lost 
causes, and fallen flags, and consecrated graves was — 
sentiment. Those who were to make the future had no 
time for it. That was his view. And, as all his life, he 



JAMES LONGSTREET 83 

could not imagine that there could be any other. He 
acted on it at once — and found himself, among thousands 
of old comrades, all alone. 

And now, surely, we are eager to probe the " wonder- 
ful majesty" of this "immovable Gibraltar" for what was 
human under it, to thrust below the stolid Dutch phleg- 
matic surface of grim work and rocklike confidence and 
find the emotions of mortality. 

They were there. Let us take the unsightly ones first 
and be rid of them. They had a grip on the man's soul 
that forbids us to pass them by. He was jealous, he was 
harsh, he was bitter to his enemies. Much there was, un- 
doubtedly, to bring out these feelings in him. But others 
have borne as much in a different spirit. 

To begin with his attitude towards Lee — or Lee's ad- 
mirers. Immediately after Gettysburg, perhaps under the 
influence of Lee's example, he wrote the noble letter to 
his uncle in which he says: "As we failed, I must take 
my share of the responsibility. In fact, I would prefer 
that all the blame should rest upon me. As General Lee 
is our commander, he should have all the support and in- 
fluence we can give him. If the blame, if there is any, 
can be shifted from him to me, I shall help him and our 
cause by taking it." ^^ But this mood did not last. On 
which side the fault-finding began is disputed, but it soon 
grew into bitter recrimination. Longstreet's course, justly 
or unjustly, was condemned by many, and he retorted 
with the utmost acridity, in the Philadelphia "Times" 



84 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

articles, in " Battles and Leaders," and finally in his book. 
The lofty determination to exonerate Lee at his own ex- 
pense was gradually transformed into assertions — before 
quoted — that his old chief was not a master of offensive 
battle ; ^'' that " in the field his characteristic fault was 
headlong combativeness " ;^^ that " in the immediate pres- 
ence of the enemy General Lee's mind, at all other times 
calm and clear, became excited" ; ^9 and that the fighting 
at Gettysburg had to go on until " blood enough was 
shed to appease him." ^° 

But Longstreet's attitude towards some of his comrades 
in arms shows even more unpleasant features than his 
attitude towards his beloved commander. And let me 
repeat that these things must be insisted on because they 
indicate such a fatal and such an instructive flaw in a 
nature of unusual depth and power. The proposed duel 
with A. P. Hill early in the war, if it really was proposed, 
sprang from pride in his troops as much as in himself, ^i 
No such excuse will avail for his cruel language towards 
Early. It is true that Early had criticized him; but just 
here Longstreet's weakness comes out most. Early, in 
explaining his criticisms later, says with noble and Chris- 
tian charity, "You will observe that in my article there 
is some causticity of expression, which was provoked by 
the character of the article I was replying to. I now sin- 
cerely regret the necessity which called forth the personal 
strictures contained in my replies, and would be glad if 
they could be eliminated." ^2 Yet Longstreet, writing his 



JAMES LONGSTREET 85 

book much later still, could express himself in this venom- 
ous fashion: "There was a man on the left of the line 
who did not care to make the battle win. He knew where 
it was, had viewed it from its earliest formation, had 
orders for his part in it, but so withheld part of his com- 
mand from it as to make cooperative concert of action 
impracticable. He had a pruriency for the honors of the 
field of Mars, was eloquent, before the fires of the bivouac 
and his chief, of the glory of war's gory shield ; but when 
its envied laurels were dipping to his grasp, when the 
heavy field called for bloody work, he found the placid 
horizon, far and beyond the cavalry, more lovely and 
inviting." ^^ 

This spirit is even more apparent in Longstreet's re- 
marks about Jackson and Virginia. Here again one 
should read Colonel Allan's noble expression of Virginia's 
opinion about Longstreet.^^ This only emphasizes such 
remarks as the following, in regard to Harper's Ferry : 
"Jackson was quite satisfied with the campaign, as the 
Virginia papers made him the hero of Harper's Ferry, 
although the greater danger was with McLaws, whose 
service was the severer and more important" ; ^^ or this 
other, when Jackson declined Longstreet's assistance in 
the Valley : " I had been left in command on the Rapidan, 
but was not authorized to assume command of the Val- 
ley district. As the commander of the district did not 
care to have an officer there of higher rank, the subject 
was discontinued." ^^ These things make one recur to 



86 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Mrs. Longstreet's eulogy and to her quotation of her 
husband's appeal to his countrymen at the outbreak of 
the Spanish War : " If I could recall one hour of my dis- 
tant but glorious command, I would say, on the eve of 
battle with a foreign foe, ' Little children, love one an- 
other.' " " 

The most characteristic, most important, and most un- 
fortunate of all Longstreet's writings about his old com- 
panions is the deliberate close of his article in the second 
volume of " Battles and Leaders." I do not think the 
most ardent admirer of Lincoln can approve either the 
feeling or the taste with which his name is introduced 
here. " I cannot close this sketch without reference to 
the Confederate commander. When he came upon the 
scene for the first time, General Lee was an unusually 
handsome man, even in his advanced life. He seemed 
fresh from West Point, so trim was his figure, and so 
elastic his step. Out of battle he was as gentle as a wo- 
man, but when the clash of arms came, he loved fight, 
and urged his battle with wonderful determination. As 
a usual thing he was remarkably well balanced — always 
so, except on one or two occasions of severe trial when 
he failed to maintain his exact equipoise. Lee's orders 
were always well considered and well chosen. He de- 
pended almost too much on his officers for their exe- 
cution. Jackson was a very skillful man against such 
men as Shields, Banks, and Fremont, but when pitted 
against the best of the Federal commanders, he did not 



JAMES LONGSTREET 87 

appear so well. Without doubt the greatest man of re- 
bellion times, the one matchless among forty millions 
for the peculiar difficulties of the period, was Abraham 
Lincoln." ^^ 

But who could leave Longstreet so? It is incontestable 
that, with all these marked and disastrous defects, the 
man was immensely lovable and had not only force, but 
charm. Under the stolid exterior there were kindly emo- 
tions as well as sharper ones. Socially he is said to have 
been quiet and undemonstrative, yet at times he showed 
a tenderness and affection which were all the more appre- 
ciated. 

There can be no doubt that his patriotism and devo- 
tion to the cause he served were strong and genuine. 
** While we weep with the friends of our gallant dead, 
we must confess that a soldier's grave, in so holy and just 
a cause, is the highest honor that a man can attain." ^^ 
** For myself," he says, after Vicksburg and Gettysburg, 
" I felt that our last hope was gone, and that it was only a 
question of time with us." ^° Yet he fought on as steadily, 
as bravely, as persistently as ever, and declared, in Janu- 
ary, 1865, "We are better able to cope with the enemy 
now than we have ever been, if we will profit by our 
experience and exert ourselves properly in improving 
our organization." ^^ 

He was as thoughtful in his sympathy for noncombat- 
ants as he was hardy in fighting. Thus after Fredericks- 
burg he directs a subscription to be taken up for the 



88 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

inhabitants and describes their sufferings and their devo- 
tion with the most evident tenderness. ^2 

I have cited many bitter things that he wrote of his 
enemies. Alas, they are in print, set solid in history, and 
injure him far more than those he attacked. But we should 
weigh against them the kindly, charitable things which 
Mrs. Longstreet describes him as saying. When Gordon, 
who had uttered harsh words as to Gettysburg, was re- 
ported ill, Longstreet inquired, with touching concern, 
about his condition. ^^ Judge Speer and the general had 
had disagreements. When asked how he would receive 
the judge, Longstreet answered: "As I would receive 
any other distinguished American. And as for our past 
differences, that has been a long time ago, and I have 
forgotten what it was all about." ^* General Hampton 
felt bitterly as to Longstreet's politics and would not 
meet him. Mrs. Longstreet commented on the matter 
with some harshness. But her husband said: "There 
was not a finer, braver, more gallant officer in the Con- 
federate service than Wade Hampton." ^^ Most touching 
also is Mrs. Longstreet's picture of her husband's yearning 
for the lost esteem of his fellow-Southerners. "General 
Longstreet said nothing, but his eyes slowly filled. While 
he bore unjust criticism in silence, he was visibly moved by 
any evidence of affection from the Southern people." ^^ 

And he is said to have been most deeply touched by 
the enthusiasm shown for him by his old followers at 
the unveiling of the Lee Monument. 



JAMES LONGSTREET 89 

Indeed, if one wishes to forget the general's unami- 
able peculiarities, one must turn to his relation with his 
soldiers, and one cannot fail to appreciate what a really 
great heart he had. He loved his men, sympathized with 
them, laughed at and understood their failings, saw their 
needs and strove with all his might to remedy them. 
When he found troops altering the works for better se- 
curity, although the engineers objected, he approved, 
saying, "If you save the finger of a man's hand, that 
does some good." ^^ When the cavalry leaders were in- 
clined to scoff at the infantry, he rebukes them: "The 
commanding general regrets that you entertain the im- 
pression that your forces are fighting for the bread of the 
infantry. Your troops are in the service of the Govern- 
ment, and are battling for a common cause and a com- 
mon country. The infantry of this army have fought too 
many battles to be told that their bread is earned by the 
cavalry." ^^ 

And better even than Longstreet's love for his men is 
his men's love for him. The immense collection of testi- 
monial letters printed in Mrs. Longstreet's book goes 
far beyond mere conventional eulogy. It shows a devo- 
tion and a regret which can only have been bred by 
something great. Concretely these feelings are best illus- 
trated by the old soldier who brought his gray jacket 
and his enlistment papers to be buried in his general's 
grave : " I 've served my time, and the General, he 's 
served his time, too. And I reckon I won't need my uni- 



90 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

form and papers again. But I 'd like to leave them with 
him for always." ^^ Beside which should be put Stiles's 
striking account, well-paralleled by another instance in 
Fremantle/° of the behavior of the officers at the time 
of Longstreet's wound : " The members of his staff sur- 
rounded the vehicle, some on one side and some on the 
other, and some behind. One, I remember, stood upon 
the rear step of the ambulance, seeming to desire to be as 
near him as possible. I never on any occasion during the 
four years of the war saw a group of officers and gentle- 
men so deeply distressed. They were literally bowed 
down with grief. All of them were in tears. One, by 
whose side I rode for some distance, was himself severely 
hurt, but he made no allusion to his wound and I do not 
think he felt it. It was not alone the general they admired 
who had been shot down — it was rather the man they 
loved." 71 

To inspire devotion like that a leader must, indeed, 
have noble qualities ; and, morever, it confirms one in 
the belief that a round self-confidence, backed by tried 
capacity, is a trait men cling to, as much as to anything, 
in the hour of trouble. 

Towards the end of his life Longstreet joined the 
Catholic Church. This forms such a remarkable close to 
his career that it cannot be passed over. Mrs. Longstreet, 
with another of those shrewd blows that come most 
stingingly from those we love, says he did it because his 
former Episcopal associates would not sit in the same 



JAMES LONGSTREET 91 

pew with him after his political conversion and he wanted 
a church that had more charity. 

I cannot suppose that he was a man of naturally reli- 
gious bent. Such references as he makes to the subject 
have an excess of unction which I would not for a mo- 
ment call insincere, but which suggests an excursion 
into paths not habitually traveled ; and these references 
have a rhetorical turn which appears in almost all his 
attempts to express unusual emotion. Thus, he writes of 
Genera] Jenkins's death: "In a moment of highest earthly 
hope he was transported to serenest heavenly joy ; to 
that life beyond which knows no bugle call, beat of drum, 
or clash of steel. May his beautiful spirit, through the 
mercy of God, rest in peace! Amen!"72 He himself 
closes his book with a little anecdote which strongly 
confirms my opinion as to this phase of his character. 
He visits an old servant long after the war. " * Marse 
Jim,' says the negro, ' do you belong to any church ? ' 
' Oh, yes, I try to be a good Christian.' He laughed loud 
and long, and said, — * Something must have scared 
you mighty bad, to change you so from what you was 
when I had to care for you.' " ''^ 

Yet this man became a Roman Catholic ! This man 
who had all his life trusted nobody, who had placed his 
own judgment above that of every other, took the 
Church which substitutes authority for individual judg- 
ment, treats kings and commanders and babes and 
sucklings alike ! It may have been for this very reason. 



92 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

If he was to make the surrender, he may have preferred 
to make it absolute, and where the Lees and Jacksons 
would have had to make it too. Nevertheless, I find a 
singular piquancy in the image of him who is said to 
have jeoparded great battles by his stifE-necked self-will 
becoming as a little child again, of him who had rejected 
the generalship of Lee submitting his soul to the guid- 
ance of a ghostly confessor. 



IV 

p. G. T. Beauregard 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born in Louisiana, May 28, 18 18. 
Graduated at West Point, 1838. 
Second Lieutenant, July i, 1838. 
Served in Mexican War, 1846-47. 
Superintendent at West Point, January 23-28, 1861. 
General in Confederate Army, 1861. 
Commanded at Charleston, spring of 1861. 
Commanded at Battle of Bull Run, July, 1861. 
Commanded in West, Battle of Shiloh, spring of 1862. 
Commanded at Charleston during 1863. 
Commanded south of James River, spring of 1864. 
Died at New Orleans, February 20, 1893. 




p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 



IV 

p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 

We are apt to feel that at the time of the Civil War the 
South was more homogeneous, more typically Anglo- 
Saxon than the North. Yet among the Confederate 
leaders we find Longstreet the Dutchman, Benjamin the 
Jew, and Beauregard, who was French as if from Paris. 

Born in French Louisiana, Beauregard carried his 
French traditions and manners to West Point and 
through the Mexican War, in which he served with dis- 
tinguished gallantry. He was a small, dark man, of 
French physique, justly proud of great muscular strength, 
compact, alert, thoroughly martial. For the most part, 
his face was grave and quiet, but in battle it lighted up 
with a splendid glory. During the war his hair grew 
suddenly gray. This was attributed by some to over- 
whelming anxiety, by others, ill-naturedly, to the scar- 
city of imported Parisian cosmetics. 

He had too much real genius to ape any one. Yet 
being a Frenchman and a soldier, he could not but 
dream nightly and daily of Napoleon, and that over- 
shadowing influence modeled, perhaps unconsciously, a 
good many of his habits and methods. " He possesses 
large concentrativeness and vivid perception ; and hav- 
ing once formed his determinations, is inflexible in his 



96 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

purpose. In appearance and habits of life he resembles 
the first Napoleon, and like him eats but frugally. At 
supper I have frequently observed him only partake of 
a small portion of biscuit and a glass of water." ^ Whether 
Napoleonic or not, temperance, almost complete absti- 
nence, from stimulants and tobacco marked Beauregard 
through life. 

Chivalrous and courteous in all things, he was a de- 
voted admirer of women. *' Like many of our other dis- 
tinguished soldiers, especially of his race," says Wise, 
" he was fond of the gentler sex, and at his best when 
in their company." ^ This is severe, but Wise is inclined 
to be satirical. Cooke's account of the general's social 
relations is more just. With both men and women he 
was polite and kindly, ** wholly free from affectation and 
assumption." And the biographer tells a pretty story of 
the presentation of a bouquet from some young ladies, 
which the general received " stammering and blushing 
like a girl." ^ 

Persons of a difPerent race will perhaps consider as a 
Gallic trait in Beauregard his singular, simple, outspoken, 
ever-present vanity, not so much a high conceit of self 
as an instinctive desire, unrepressed and irrepressible, to 
occupy the centre of the stage, no matter what is going 
on. 

Note that in Beauregard's case, as in D'Artagnan, in 
Dumas, for that matter in Napoleon himself, this vanity 
is quite compatible with genius, with real greatness, even 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 97 

with a certain sort of modesty ; at any rate, simplicity. 
Beauregard is large enough at moments to get outside 
the blur of his own egotism : " My duty is to defend 
Charleston and Savannah ; hence I may think them 
more important than they really are." ^ When he drops 
his rhetoric, he has words so simple as to approach 
grandeur. Thus, some one complained of the name 
Bull Run as unrefined. Beauregard said, "Let us try 
to make it as great a name as your South Carolina 
Cowpens." ^ 

But, for the most part, the general takes himself, his 
army, his gifts, his plans, and all his doings in a very 
serious manner and never shows the least disposition to 
underrate their importance. He has French talents of 
speech, and even in the lavish military rhetoric which the 
war produced on both sides his stands out with proud 
preeminence. How he does luxuriate in large language 
to his soldiers : " Soldiers, untoward events saved the 
enemy from annihilation. His insolent presence still pol- 
lutes your soil, his hostile flag still flaunts before you. 
There can be no peace so long as these things are." ^ 
What pleasure he must have taken in writing the cele- 
brated " beauty and booty " proclamation 1 " All rules of 
civilized warfare are abandoned, and they proclaim by 
their acts, if not on their banners, that their war-cry is, 
' Beauty and booty.' " ^ What greater pleasure in the 
accidental publicity which distributed it both South and 
North ! Less critical than Captain Dugald Dalgetty, he 



98 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

urges that weapons are indifferent. " Come with pikes 
and scythes, so you come." And Victor Hugo might 
have been glad to own the sonorous call for church bells 
to be melted into cannon. 

Even an official report seemed a pleasant medium for 
bestowing phraseology on word-thirsty millions, and 
over the head of the staid Cooper this eager warrior 
speaks far out to the adoring Confederacy. '* O my coun- 
try ! I would readily have sacrificed my life and those of 
all the brave men around me to save your honor and to 
maintain your independence from the degrading yoke 
which those ruthless invaders had come to impose and 
render perpetual." ^ 

Beauregard's amiable vanity is, however, much more 
obvious than in the mere habit of luxuriant proclama- 
tions. It shows in little things. Pierre Gustave Toutant 
Beauregard ! How large and high-sounding! But vulgar 
war-office officials quickly make it, Peter. Fancy ! Peter ! 
In a very few months G. T. Beauregard is all that is left 
and Peter is no more heard of. 

Then there is delightful commendation of the general 
by the general. Bull Run was a brilliant victory, no 
doubt, but others might have been left to mention it. 
The retreat from Corinth could not have been conducted 
better. So the retreater assures us, and he ought to 
know. He will make Charleston as famous for defense 
as Saa^gossa. The defense, when made, is unsurpassed 
in the world's history, and it causes in the North dis- 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 99 

couragement as black as followed the triumph of the 
first Manassas. 

Among many fascinating passages in this connection 
two are perhaps especially significant. "Notwithstand- 
ing my additional experience in the command of armies 
and departments, I feel less confidence in myself than I 
did two years ago, for I know that if I succeed, I only 
increase the irritation of certain persons against me, and 
if I fail, their satisfaction and ire. Without intending to 
flatter myself, I feel like Samson shorn of his locks." ^ 
And imagine either Lee, or Jackson, or Johnston writing 
the following letter to a lady friend, with its delicious 
mixture of naivete, self-confidence, and also genuine mod- 
esty : " I then had suddenly on the spur of the moment 
to change my whole plan of battle, with troops which had 
never yet fought and could scarcely manceuvre. My 
heart for a moment failed me ! I felt as though all was 
lost, and I wished I had fallen in the battle of the i8th; 
but I soon rallied, and I then internally pledged my life 
that I would that day conquer or die. Immediately every- 
thing appeared again clear and hopeful, though the worst 
was yet to come." ^° 

After the war Beauregard adopted a curious, ingen- 
ious, and not altogether happy method of self-laudation. 
He had his life written by Colonel Roman who could say 
things that not even his commander could say himself. 
The device is not, of course, new. Badeau's "Grant" 
comes dangerously near the same category. And the old 



loo CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Chancellor Sully, three centuries ago, sat by and heard 
his secretary chant his master's astonishing glory to his 
face. But the Roman-Beauregard partnership takes in- 
contestably the lead of all of them. In an introductory 
paragraph the general guarantees all his biographer's 
statements — except those complimentary. The excep- 
tion might really have been dispensed with. 

As one brief specimen of the way the method works 
take an extract from a letter addressed to the commander- 
in-chief in regard to Shiloh. " An order was sent quickly 
along the lines, informing the men that you should ride 
in front of them and that no cheering should be indulged 
in. You passed in front of the lines, and never was an 
order so reluctantly obeyed as was this order, ' No cheer- 
ing, men ! ' which had to be repeated at every breath, 
and enforced by continuous gesture. General Johnston's 
prestige was great, but the hearts of the soldiers were 
with you, and your presence awakened an enthusiasm 
and confidence magical in its effect," ^^ 

Pages and pages of this sort of thing, with the vivid 
image of the subject of it smiling and nodding his modest 
approval, produce the most singular impression on the 
reader's nerves. 

In much the same way, Beauregard's own little book 
on the first battle of Bull Run is written throughout in 
the third person, perhaps with the genuine intention of 
being more modest, but with the practical result of being 
much less so. 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD loi 

It is to be noted, what indeed we should expect, that 
this perpetual, complacent vanity was accompanied by 
little if any sense of humor. No man who caught glimpses, 
even momentarily, of himself and his achievements 
under the aspect of eternity could ever have regarded 
his achievements or himself with such smug satisfaction. 
Stuart was vain, too ; but more in the sense of a full- 
blooded self-consciousness. He liked to be heard, to be 
seen, to make the world ring with his mellow voice. But 
it was a laughing voice and as ready to mock at Stuart 
as at any one. Beauregard, as a member of his stafE 
writes me, ^^ rarely jested with officers or soldiers. The 
gleam of a jest in his correspondence is also rare enough. 
"I have written and telegraphed on the subject until my 
hand is hoarse." ^^ And Cooke never saw a smile upon 
his face from their first meeting until some months later, 
after the battle of Manassas, though the biographer 
gives other instances of laughter in the following years. 
Cooke's comment on the general's smile is worth record- 
ing: "His laugh was peculiar; the eyes sparkled, the 
firm muscles slowly moved, and the white teeth came out 
with a quite startling effect under the heavy black 
moustache." 14 The laughter of a martialist, you see, 
grudging and of necessity, not Stuart's perpetual, joyous 
bubbling all over. 

In one aspect Beauregard's vanity is harmless and 
amusing ; but it had its more serious side in that it made 
him jealous, sensitive, suspicious, and so contributed a 



I02 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

large chapter to the pitiful history of recrimination and 
fault-finding which makes the years after the war so de- 
pressing to read about. Mrs. Chesnut's apt and passion- 
ate exclamation on the subject is suitable to many, North 
and South, besides Beauregard. ** Another outburst from 
Jordan. Beauregard is not properly seconded. Helas! To 
think that any mortal general (even though he had 
sprung up in a month or so from captain of artillery to 
general) could be so puffed up with vanity, so blinded 
by any false idea of his own consequence as to write, to 
intimate that any man, or men, would sacrifice their 
country, injure themselves, ruin their families, to spite 
the aforesaid general." ^^ No doubt, personal animosity 
makes men do strange things, without looking to con- 
sequences so far as Mrs. Chesnut could do in cold blood. 
But oh, if some of these really great, really noble, really 
extraordinary men could for once have dropped their 
vast ingenuity of self-justification and said simply, "I 
was wrong, I made a mistake, I am sorry ! " Lee did it. 
And his example shines like a star in a dark night. 

Meantime, we must take human nature as it is. Beaure- 
gard's was attractive, in some ways really charming ; but 
it had its kinks and quirks and oddities. 

He could not get along with Davis. Neither could 
many others. Estimating himself as highly as Beauregard 
did, it was natural that he should attribute any apparent 
slight or neglect on Davis's part to pique and jealousy. 
Possibly there may have been something of these feelings 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 103 

in the President's attitude. Beauregard at one time al- 
lowed himself to be talked of as a presidential candidate 
and made the movement rather more prominent by os- 
tentatious modesty. It was natural that Davis should not 
like this. But I think his treatment of his subordinate was 
based chiefly on lack of confidence in the subordinate's 
ability, and on a feeling that the work could be done 
quite as well by men who were more thoroughly in sym- 
pathy with the Government. 

At any rate, the relations between the two were un- 
pleasant, with evident fault on both sides. Davis, as always 
where he disliked, made himself extremely disagreeable. 
Sometimes he patronizes, as when Beauregard complains 
of a rebuke from Benjamin: "Now, my dear sir, let me 
entreat you to dismiss this small matter from your mind. 
In the hostile masses before you, you have a subject 
more worthy of your contemplation." ^^ Sometimes the 
president takes a sharper tone, as on the same topic: 
" You surely did not intend to inform me that your army 
or yourself are outside the limits of the law." ^^ If the 
general proposes a plan, it is disregarded. If he asks for 
more men, he is told that he should do more with what 
he has. If he retreats, he has done it too soon, or too late, 
or unskillfully. If he absents himself for a little time on 
account of illness, his departure is taken advantage of to 
put another in his place. 

No doubt these things were trying. But they were 
partly brought about by Beauregard's own desire to be 



104 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

prominent and they were allowed to breed a counter- 
spirit of animosity quite as discreditable as the presi- 
dent's. The subordinate said very harsh things of his 
superior. He speaks of the Government's policy in com- 
parison with his own as "the passive defensive of an 
intellect timid of risk and not at home in war, and the 
active defensive reaching for success through enterprise 
and boldness." ^^ He assumes, rightly or wrongly, a 
bitter jealousy on the part of the president and all con- 
nected with him. " Kemper quickly obtained for me some 
two hundred good wagons, to which number I had 
limited him so as not to arouse again the jealousy of 
the President's staff." ^^ He does not hesitate to say, 
through his biographer, that the president's neglect of 
the general's advice had fatal consequence : ** The Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy, by thus persisting in these 
three lamentable errors, lost the South her independ- 
ence." 20 And one little phrase, addressed to the gen- 
eral by a favorite staff officer, is perhaps most significant 
of all : *' As soon as you feel rested I hope you will report 
for duty and orders to the War Department. I hope that 
you will be able to do so soon, and thus force your arch- 
enemy to show his hand decisively at an early day if he 
dare do it." ^i Arch-enemy ! It would have been better 
if Grant or Lincoln had been the arch enemy and not 
the head of the country all were trying to save. 

If Beauregard's hurt vanity had set him at odds with 
Davis only, there would have been less to complain of. 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 105 

So many were at odds with Davis ! But the circle in- 
cluded more than the president. To establish the record 
of what the general might have done, it was necessary to 
cast slurs upon Benjamin, — here not wholly undeserved, 
— upon Ewell, upon Bragg, upon A. S. Johnston, even 
upon Lee, who might easily have saved the Confederacy, 
if he would have done as Beauregard wished him to. 

But the most unfortunate of all these contentions was 
that between Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston about 
the first battle of Bull Run. There were undue suscepti- 
bilities on both sides. Obviously there was misunder- 
standing on both sides, which a frank, generous, straight- 
forward spirit of self-sacrifice might easily have removed. 
Beauregard thought he had won the victory. Johnston 
thought he had won it. Johnston's tone in the controversy 
is unamiable and unconciliating. But Beauregard's is far 
more so. "General Johnston came to Manassas beset 
with the idea that our united force would not be able to 
cope with the Federal army, and that we should be 
beaten — a catastrophe in which he was not anxious to 
figure on the pages of history as the leading and responsi- 
ble actor." 22 

Alas, that generous and high-minded men can be be- 
trayed by their passions into such language as this. And 
Beauregard has altogether too much of it in his little 
book on the battle of Manassas, published — let us hope 
by accident — when Johnston was on his deathbed and 
unable to reply. 



io6 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

In the midst of a great deal of vague and unwarranted 
attribution of motive the Louisiana soldier does, indeed, 
make one good point, though it is something in the 
nature of a boomerang. If Bull Run had been a defeat, he 
says, does any one suppose that General Johnston would 
have been so eager to claim the command? We all know 
he would not. But, then, neither would Beauregard. 

And both of them, in slapping back and forth at each 
other, assume that they have no personal motive, but 
only desire to establish the truth of history. Oh, the truth 
of history ! How many crimes have been committed in 
that name ! Surely the truth of history is of infinitely less 
importance than brotherly love. At any rate, it would be 
far better if history should confuse the leadership of a 
battle and be able to record that heroic souls lived free 
from petty carping and ungenerous complaint. It will, 
indeed, be urged that precisely the truth of history is lead- 
ing me to unveil these weaknesses. But, at least, it is the 
truth of history, and not sore pride masking in an odious 
disguise. 

It should, however, be said that during the actual 
course of the war Beauregard does not seem to have 
allowed himself to be greatly affected by prejudice or 
irritability. Later, under the influence of disappointment 
and criticism and flatterers, his vanity, his dreams of what 
might have been, grew into an obsession, and made him 
say things that should never have been said. But while 
he was actually fighting for the Confederacy, he, for the 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 107 

most part, bore slights and unkindnesses in a charitable 
and Christian spirit. Thus, he declares himself ready to 
serve when and where he may be required to do so: "I 
know not yet to what point I shall be ordered. . . . How- 
ever, ^ L ho7nme propose et Dieu dispose'' \ hence, I shall go 
with alacrity wherever I am ordered." ^3 Instead of scold- 
ing Seddon, as most generals were too prone to do, 
Beauregard recognized the immense difficulties. ** In con- 
clusion I can but express my thanks to the Honorable 
Secretary of War for his good intentions to assist us here. 
I feel convinced that, so far as he is concerned, we can 
rely upon him." 24 And again : ** I can well understand 
the perplexities of Mr. Seddon's position." 25 While the 
following touch is so noble as to outweigh many bitter 
words and harsh judgments [italics mine]: "Why will 
not those in authority do promptly what should be done? 
This rejiection I apply also to myself. " ^6 

The truth is, the man was a genuine patriot, however 
his patriotism may have been mixed with earthly strain, 
as in all of us. To be sure, the story of his conduct dur- 
ing the few days of his superintendency at West Point, 
as General Schaff tells it, is not exactly pretty. When 
Southern cadets consulted him as to the proper course 
to pursue, the answer was : "Watch me, and when I jump, 
you jump. What's the use of jumping too soon?" 27 But 
those months were a time when decisions were difficult. 
The best of men, in such a crisis, need to be judged sym- 
pathetically, if not leniently. Once enlisted in the war, 



io8 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Beauregard's thought was really first and foremost for 
his country. 

Words are perhaps hardly sufficient evidence of this ; 
yet some of his words have an energy and a genuineness 
which it is difficult to resist. "I have not time, if I were 
so disposed, to favor friends or persecute enemies. My 
soul and body are in this contest, which is one of life and 
death to a nation of which I, my family, and friends form 
a part. I believe and hope that my love of country is un- 
sullied by personal considerations." ^s 

Words were by no means all, however. In the general's 
own narrative of his first meeting with A. S. Johnston 
note how instinctive pleasure in taking part in a "scene" 
is mingled with really noble and patriotic feeling. " When 
General Johnston first met me at Corinth, he proposed, 
after our staff had retired, to turn over the command of 
the united forces to me ; but I positively declined, on his 
account and that of the ' cause,' telling him that I had 
come to assist, but not to supersede him, and offering to 
give him all the assistance in my power. He then con- 
cluded to remain in command. It was one of the most 
affecting scenes of my life." ^9 

There are other incidents about which there was no 
scene and no display whatever. Thus, after Bragg had 
been put in his commander's place, Beauregard writes 
to the War Department, offering to submit his plan of 
campaign, which he believed meant victory, for Bragg's 
use.3o Again, Jordan wrote begging his chief to refuse 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 109 

the command of Charleston as an indignity. Yet when 
it was offered him, he answered : ** I have no preference 
to express. Will go wherever ordered. Do for the 
best." 31 Surely it was the response of a noble and finely 
tempered spirit. 

As regards purely military qualities Beauregard was 
in many ways interesting. He was a fighter, there can 
be no question of that ; had martial instincts that were 
French, if nothing else was, the fiiria frmicese^ in its 
native purity. How characteristic are the trifling anec- 
dotes of his youth. When he was a boy of nine, a grown 
man teased him past bearing. The child seized a stick 
and flew at his tormentor with such stormy violence that 
he was obliged to retreat to a shed and remain there till 
higher powers released him.^^ Again, the boy was walk- 
ing solemnly into church to his first communion. He 
heard a drum outside, forgot everything, and ran from 
the very altar.^^ 

As a mature soldier, he had perfect calmness and con- 
trol in strain and exposure. Defeat could not alter him. 
He took his measures and gave his orders with prompt- 
ness and lucidity. When the right moment came, he 
could rush to lead a charge and sweep every man along 
with him. In critical dispatches he could drop all his 
rodomontade and rhetoric. Does not this one, to Van 
Dorn asking for arms, ring with the crystal sonority of 
Napoleon's ? " I regret I have none ; could not remove 
all I took, but we will take more. Come on ! " ^4 



no CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

As a commander, he always had a grip on his men 
and could make them do what he wanted. His discipline 
was founded on sympathy and a thorough understand- 
ing of a subordinate's position. At Drewry's Bluff he 
thought Whiting had failed him utterly and said so in 
his report, yet in such a way as to keep Whiting's affec- 
tion and devotion. Those things are the test of a true 
leader. How simple and charmingly characteristic is the 
general's own account of a bit of disciplinary work : " By 
the by, I discharged a few days ago my mounted orderly, 
the famous Aaron Jones, for neglect of duty, but could 
not resist his appeal, which was, 'General, I enlisted 
purposely to be with you, and I would rather die under 
you than live under any other general.' I scolded him 
and let him off." ^^ He believed that, in a volunteer army, 
at any rate, more was to be obtained by encouragement 
and inspiration than by severity. Therefore he urged 
promotions, honors, and rewards, so far as lay in his 
power, and he employed a system of himself distributing 
badges of bravery which made a scene no doubt as 
grateful to the commander as to the commanded. 

Yet he could be absolutely unyielding, if circumstances 
required it. When a battle was imminent, a soldier begged 
leave to visit his dying mother. " I can grant no leave." 
"Only ten days, general." "I will not give you ten 
hours." 2^ That was all there was to it. And where will 
you find a more terse, vigorous, and scathing accusation 
of a subordinate than this letter about Ripley, who, it 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD m 

may be remarked, was as rebellious with Lee as he was 
with Beauregard : ** Brigadier-General Ripley is active, 
energetic, intelligent, ambitious, cunning, and fault-find- 
ing. He complains of every commanding officer he has 
served under, and has quarreled (or had difficulty) with 
almost every one of his immediately subordinate com- 
manders since his promotion to his present rank in 
1 86 1. He obeys orders only so far as they suit his pur- 
pose, provided, by disobeying them, he does not incur 
the risk of a court martial, which, however, he does not 
much fear, trusting to his intelligence and ability to get 
clear of the consequences thereof." ^7 

As to Beauregard's personal relations with officers 
and soldiers witnesses differ somewhat. J. E. Cooke says 
that he had the French habit of mingling freely with the 
soldiers, chatting with them, and lighting his cigar at 
their camp-fires.^^ Others describe his manner as distant, 
though courteous and kindly, and his aide. Major Cooke, 
writes me that the general was too reserved to have care- 
lessly familiar intercourse with those about him. There 
was nothing of Stuart's light jest and cordial laughter to 
make the men feel that their commander was as human 
as themselves. 

Yet Beauregard's popularity was immense. That he 
should be worshiped in Louisiana was natural, and who 
would not forgive the Louisianian's remark: "Lee? 
Lee? Yes, I've heard Beauregard speak well of Lee." 
The universal enthusiasm that hailed the victor of Sum- 



112 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

ter and Bull Run perhaps waned a little, as the war 
went on ; but many continued to the end to cherish the 
feelings of an admiring civilian who says : ** The country 
looks hopefully — oh! how hopefully — to you in this 
hour of its deepest trials." ^9 When Beauregard went to 
Charleston, Governor Pickens wrote: "I am rejoiced to 
see you here again, as there is no general who could 
have been selected to whom South Carolina could have 
looked with more confidence for her defense than to 
yourself." ^o While the testimony of a military man is 
equally impressive : " Floyd does understand this coun- 
try and knows how to defend it. Above all, the country 
believes in him and desires him to be entrusted with its 
defense, . . . Joe Johnston or Beauregard could alone 
command the same confidence or more." ^^ 

With the soldiers everywhere there was even more 
devotion than with civilians. Beauregard seems to have 
had the magnetic quality which is hard to seize or to 
define, but which inspires men to do anything. Pollard 
quotes the strong assertion that up to the very last days 
the Army of Northern Virginia would have greeted 
Beauregard's presence among them with "shouts of joy 
and demonstrations of wild affection which no other living 
man could elicit." ^^ 

The staff officers were devotedly attached to their com- 
mander and preferred remaining with him to all other 
assignments, although the disfavor of the Government 
made promotion unlikely. It is worth observing that with 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 113 

many of the generals who were in some ways subject to 
criticism, — Johnston, Beauregard, Longstreet, — those 
who knew them best thought most of them. Fault-find- 
ing might come from outside. But the officers who lived 
in intimate contact with their chiefs, and should have 
seen all the faults there were, are usually enthusiastic in 
devotion and reverence. Do we need better testimony 
that, in spite of faults, the chiefs were men of heroic 
stamp and of genuine greatness ? 

That Beauregard was a general who studied, thought, 
reflected is not disputable. He read widely on the cam- 
paigns of great commanders, Napoleon especially, and 
the military maxims printed at the end of the little vol- 
ume on Manassas must be of profit to professional men. 

Indeed, it is in this field of brains, of the intellectual 
side of military matters, that we come across the gen- 
eral's most curious and most interesting characteristic — 
French, possibly ; at any rate, to some degree — his ex- 
traordinary activity and fertility of invention and imagi- 
nation. Not D'Artagnan was more ready with a sudden 
device or a long-laid scheme for helping a friend or out- 
witting an enemy. The time which others spent in drilling, 
or social relaxation, or kindly sleep, was consecrated by 
Beauregard to devising plans of all kinds worked out in 
minute detail with adaptation to all possible contingencies. 

Naturally, this planning dealt in the main with the 
grand strategy of the general's own campaigns. Yet he 
had plenty of imagination to spare for minor matters or 



114 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

those not concerning him. Thus, he propounded to Fre- 
mantle at the beginning of the war a scheme for the 
speedy ending of it,^^ and was only too ready to impart 
similar schemes to the Government at any time. He was 
quite prepared to undertake the business of Congress, 
when the pressure of his own affairs was not too great : 
" If I can find time before the assembling of Congress 
again, I may submit the details of these plans for your 
consideration as a legislator." On the other hand, when 
a minor expedition is entrusted to a subordinate, the 
commander throws his imagination as vividly into the 
detail of it as if he were writing a novel : " About dark 
on the first calm night (the sooner the better) I would 
rendezvous all my boats at the mouth of the creek in 
rear of Cummings Point, Morris Island. Then I would 
await the proper time of the night, which should not be 
too early nor too late, in order to take advantage of the 
present condition of the moon ; I would then coast quietly 
along the beach of Morris Island to a point nearest the 
enemy's present position, where General Ripley shall 
station a picket to communicate with you and show 
proper lights immediately after your attack to guide the 
return of your boats." ^^ Lee would simply have picked 
out the right man for the job and told him to go and 
do it. And note that with Beauregard it is not so much 
a disposition to interfere in the execution of orders as a 
tendency to outrun in .thought the desired course of an 
artistic conception. 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 115 

But on actual strategy the man's imagination was inex- 
haustible. To appreciate its golden and beneficent luxuri- 
ance I must summarize briefly the lines it followed. To be- 
gin with, in Mexico, a mere captain, he is said to have 
devised the plan that took the city. Before Bull Run he was 
urgent with schemes for himself and Johnston, which 
Lee rejected. Then he made a plan for the battle, which 
Johnston rejected. Perhaps I cannot better illustrate the 
sparkling eagerness with which these schemes were 
conceived than by quoting part of a letter written to 
Johnston shortly before the battle. Ardor bubbles out of 
the man like champagne. "We will probably have, in a 
few days, about forty thousand men to operate with. 
This force would enable us to destroy the forces of Gen- 
erals Scott and McDowell in my front. Then we would 
go back with as many men as necessary to attack and 
disperse General Patterson's army, before he could know 
positively what had become of you. We could then pro- 
ceed to General McClellan's theatre of war and treat him 
likewise, after which we could pass over into Maryland 
to operate in rear of Washington. I think this whole 
campaign could be completed brilliantly in from fifteen 
to twenty-five days. Oh, that we had but one good head 
to conduct all our operations !" ^^ Now, whose head do 
you think he meant? 

Early in 1862 Beauregard was sent West. Immedi- 
ately he proposed an elaborate design to Albert Sidney 
Johnston. Rejected again. All the sojourn in the West 



ii6 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

was divided between theoretical advance and practical 
retreat, most skillfully conducted. When Bragg was 
given the command, his predecessor employed his days 
of invalid leisure in evolving dazzling outlines of grand 
strategy, which, as I have said, he was generous enough 
to offer to the War Department. Here they are, in brief. 
" You ask what should be done to end this exhausting 
war [May, 1863]. We must take the offensive, as you 
suggest ; not by abandoning all other points, however, 
but by a proper selection of the point of attack — the 
Yankees themselves tell us where. I see by the papers 
of this morning that Vallandigham is being sent into 
Bragg's lines. Hooker is disposed of for the next six 
months at least. Well, let Lee act on the defensive, and 
send to Bragg 30,000 men for him to take the offensive 
with at once ; let him (or whoever is put in his place) 
[Beauregard ?] destroy or capture (as it is done in Eu- 
rope) Rosecrans' army ; then march into Kentucky, raise 
30,000 more men there and in Tennessee ; then get into 
Ohio, and call upon the friends of Vallandigham to rise 
for his defense and support ; then call upon Indiana, Il- 
linois, and Missouri to throw off the yoke of the accursed 
Yankee nation ; then upon the whole Northwest to join 
in the movement, form a Confederacy of their own, and 
join us by a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive. 
What would then become of the North East ? How long 
would it take us to bring it back to its senses ? As 
I have once written you, * Battles without diplomacy 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 117 

will never end this war.' History is there to support my 
assertion." ^^ 

The strenuous and magnificent defense of Charleston 
left less leisure for brilliant meditation. Yet even during 
that time the general's brain was far from idle. Then, in 
the spring of 1864, he went to Petersburg and immedi- 
ately it became obvious to him that Lee, though a good- 
enough fighter, knew nothing about the science of war. 
There was an infallible plan — Beauregard saw it at once 
— by which Grant could be crushed, Richmond saved, 
and the Confederacy established. Unfortunately Davis 
was jealous, and Lee — well, perhaps Lee was busy, and 
it all came to nothing. 

Even when the last guns were firing, at the beginning 
of March, 1865, this indefatigable dreamer writes to John- 
ston proposing action by which the tables may be turned : 
"We could then confidently attack Sherman, expecting 
to destroy his army. . . . We could then attack Grant 
with superior forces and expect to defeat him signally." 
Or, by another alternative, "We could give immediate 
battle to Sherman, which could be done with almost cer- 
tainly decisive success." ^"^ 

And what about the value of all these plans ? No qual- 
ity can be of more importance to a really great com- 
mander than imagination. We all know what Napoleon's 
imagination was, magnificently inventive, ceaselessly 
working. We all know what was achieved by the imag- 
ination of Jackson. Beauregard is right in general, when. 



ii8 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

crying out against Johnston's conservatism, he exclaims : 
" The history of war is full of buried feasibilities that might 
have been brilliant realities, if it were not for this * I dare 
not' waiting upon 'I would.' " ^^ 

Only, when a man's imagination overflows with these 
"feasibilities" for four years and not one of them be- 
comes a "brilliant reality" even once, we grow a little 
suspicious. In spite of his own ill-health, in spite of the 
Government's hostility, Beauregard surely had oppor- 
tunities. Yet no one of his splendid dreams of strategy 
during the war ever even approached fulfillment. Sumter 
fell into his arms. Bull Run was won by character, not 
by genius. At Shiloh he failed to harvest any fruits of 
Johnston's victory. Some believe he threw them away. At 
Drewry's Bluff he himself admits that — naturally through 
the fault of others — his full plans were not carried out. 
By the very irony of fortune, his greatest glory is in a 
defense which required no aggressive imagination at all. 
He listens with beatific contentment to his inspired biog- 
rapher's assertion that Jackson and Beauregard were the 
two great strategic geniuses of the war. Alas, he would 
have been far less contented with the quiet characteriza- 
tion of his own countryman, Grasset: "An ardent heart, 
a fine-looking soldier, a mediocre strategist, an able engi- 
neer." ^9 And Lee's gentle comment in a particular in- 
stance is equally conclusive : " General Lee spoke in 
terms of compliment and kindness to General Beaure- 
gard ; thought the plan well conceived and might be 



p. G. T. BEAUREGARD 119 

brilliant in its results if we should meet with no disaster in 
the details, and if the time for its execution had arrived." ^o 

Again, imagination so highly developed has its positive 
dangers. It distracts a man from reality. " Driveling on 
possibilities," writes Davis to Beauregard himself." Again 
and again the phrase occurs to me, in spite of its un- 
reasonable savageness. "Driveling on possibilities." 

And plans so elaborately developed hamper, because 
they can never be exactly carried out, and the breaking 
of one link disorders the whole. If your plan does not 
work in all its complications, what are you to do? 
This befell Beauregard at Bull Run, as he himself admits. 
It befell again at Shiloh. It would have befallen elsewhere. 

Also, if you are apt at imagining plans for yourself, 
you imagine them for your enemy. This was a weakness 
of Beauregard's. He would have withdrawn before Shiloh 
because he conceived that Grant would do what Beaure- 
gard might have done in his place. And the same thing 
occurred frequently. 

Yet Beauregard's confidence in these schemes of his 
is inexhaustible and he is able to communicate it to his 
admirers. He does at times admit the bare possibility of 
accident. "There still remains, of course, the hazard of 
accidents in execution, and the apprehension of the 
enemy's movements upsetting your own." ^^ But, for the 
most part, his plans are absolutely certain of success ; 
they cannot fail, if adopted, to shatter the enemy and free 
the Confederacy forever and forever. If Lee will do as 



I20 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

he says, in the spring of 1864, he will stake his profes- 
sional reputation that Grant will be crushed and Rich- 
mond delivered. Apparently there are to-day people who 
think that because he was confident, therefore he was 
right. 

In short, even during the war, this " driveling on possi- 
bilities" approached a mania. But after the war the re- 
sults of it were, indeed, deplorable. For the man was by 
nature kindly, self-sacrificing, patriotic. But his dreams 
had become realities to him to such an extent that those 
who had followed their own judgment instead of his grew 
to seem public enemies, traitors, who had sacrificed a 
great cause to a personal spite. 

A careful study of many of these great soldiers — 
Johnston, Longstreet, Beauregard, and Northern generals 
also — leads one to feel that much of the pitiable post- 
bellum discussion, quarreling, and controversy was simply 
an outlet for nervous wear and tear, a brooding over what 
might have been — coming to seem what ought to have 
been — as a consolation for defeat, humiliation, and failure. 
Beauregard's case is the most curious of these. He lived 
in an atmosphere of dreams unrealized, of marvelous 
things that General Beauregard would have done, if only 
the thoughtless world would have stood by admiring 
and watched him do them. It was, after a fashion, a use- 
ful anodyne for hopes ruined and a great cause lost. Yet 
it seems to me that I should prefer the laureled grave of 
Stuart or the last heroic sacrifice of Sidney Johnston. 



V 

JUDAH P. Benjamin 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born in St. Thomas, West Indies, August 6, i8ii. 

Entered Yale College, 1825. 

Admitted to Louisiana Bar, December 16, 1832. 

Married Natalie St. Martin, 1832. 

United States Senate, 1852. 

Bade farewell to Senate, February 4, 1861. 

Attorney-General of Confederacy, February, 1 86 1. 

Secretary of War, September, 1861. 

Secretary of State, March, 1862. 

Admitted to bar in England, June, 1866. 

Publication of Benjamin on Sales, 1868. 

Became Queen's Counsel, 1872. 

Retired, 1883. 

Died in Paris, May 6, 1884. 




JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 

Benjamin was a Jew. He was born a British subject. 
He made a brilliant reputation at the Louisiana Bar and 
was offered a seat in the Supreme Court of the United 
States.^ He became United States Senator. When his 
State seceded, he went with it, and filled three cabinet 
positions under the Confederacy. He fell with the im- 
mense collapse of that dream fabric. Then, at the age of 
fifty-four, he set himself to build up a new fortune and a 
new glory ; and he died one of the most successful and 
respected barristers in London. Such a career seems to 
offer piquant matter for portraiture. Let us see if it does. 
Characteristic of the man at the very threshold is his 
attitude about such portraiture. He will not have it, if 
he can help it, will not aid in it, destroys all letters and 
papers that may contribute to it. "I have never kept a 
diary, or retained a copy of a letter written by me. . . . 
I have read so many American biographies which re- 
flected only the passions and prejudices of their writers, 
that I do not want to leave behind me letters and docu- 
ments to be used in such a work about myself." 2 And 
he is said to have quoted early advice given him to the 
effect that the secret of human happiness was the de- 
struction of writing.3 On this principle he acted and by 



124 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

so doing certainly made my task more difficult. Indeed, 
it would have been impossible, except for the researches 
of Professor Pierce Butler, whose excellent biography 
must form the basis of all future writing about the Jewish 
lawyer and statesman. 

But if Benjamin's view of biography and its materials 
is characteristic in its secretiveness, it is also character- 
istic in its limitation and inadequacy. I take him to have 
been an honest man. Now an honest man has nothing 
to gain by destroying records. Talleyrand spent hours 
of his retirement in burning paper after paper. John 
Quincy Adams spent hours of both active life and retire- 
ment in noting every detail of his existence for posterity. 
Has he not gained by it ? Is there a line of his that does 
not emphasize his honesty, his dignity, his human worth ? 
Do we not love Pepys far better for his minute confes- 
sions, even if he loses a little of his bewigged respect- 
ability? No, Benjamin's endeavors to conceal himself 
remind me a good deal of the ostrich which rests satis- 
fied when it has left perfectly obvious the least intelli- 
gent part of it. 

The truth is, destruction of records hampers only the 
honest investigator. The partisan and the scandal-mon- 
ger remain wholly indifferent. Professor Butler's earnest 
efforts have accomplished everything possible, in the 
scarcity of materials, to clear the subject of his biography ; 
but Benjamin's popular reputation will probably remain 
what it was at the end of the war. That is, both North 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 125 

and South will regard him with dislike approaching to 
contempt. "The ability of Benjamin was undoubted," 
says Mr. Rhodes, expressing the mildest Northern view ; 
" but he was by many considered untrustworthy." ^ And 
the same authority sees nothing in the secretary's career 
incompatible with complicity in the raid on St. Albans 
and the attempted burning of New York. A few South- 
ern amenities may also be cited. " The oleaginous Mr. 
Benjamin," Wise calls him; "his keg-like form and 
over-deferential manner suggestive of a prosperous shop- 
keeper." ^ "The hated Jew," says Dodd, "whom the 
President had retained at his council table, despite the 
protests of the Southern people and press." ^ And Foote 
sums him up choicely as " Judas Iscariot Benjamin." ^ 

It is our affair, from the mass of anecdote and recol- 
lection and especially from such scanty evidence as the 
gentleman himself could not avoid leaving us, to find 
out how far this attitude is justified. 

To begin, then, with Benjamin's professional life ; for 
he was first and last a lawyer, only by avocation a states- 
man. And to-day he is probably best, certainly most fa- 
vorably, known as the author of the exhaustive work en- 
titled " Benjamin on Sales." It is universally recognized 
that as a pleader in court he had few superiors. His 
power of direct, lucid statement was admirable, and no 
one knew better how to present every remote possibility 
of argument on either side of a case.^ Even his admirers 
confess that he sometimes imposed on himself in this 



126 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

way. His enemies maintain that he was not imposed on 
at all, but argued for the side that paid him, with serene 
indifference to the right and wrong of it.^ And they con- 
clude that in politics he was equally indifferent. They 
forget, however, that the lawyer's second nature does not 
always drive out the first. Cicero pleaded for many a 
client whom he despised. Nevertheless, he was a pas- 
sionate lover of Rome. 

As to Benjamin's oratory opinions differ. In England 
more stress was laid on his matter than on his manner. 
But in America friends and enemies alike seem to agree 
that he had unusual gifts. On this point mere printed 
speeches are not sufficient for a judgment. They lack 
the gesture, the expression, the fire, cunningly simulated 
or real. But, so far as such printed testimony goes, I fail 
to find the basis for the extravagant praise of Benjamin's 
biographers. His eloquence is neither better nor worse 
than that of a dozen of his contemporaries, a clever 
knack of turning large phrases on subjects that breed 
rhetoric in the very naming of them. His farewell speech 
in the Senate is lofty and impressive. Who could have 
failed to be so on such an occasion? He can pass a noble 
compliment like that to Judge Taney : " He will leave 
behind him in the scanty heritage that shall be left for 
his family the noblest evidence that he died, as he had 
lived, a being honorable to the earth from which he 
sprang and worthy of the heaven to which he aspired." ^^ 
And a few minutes later he can fall into screaming melo- 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 127 

drama : " Accursed, thrice accursed is that fell spirit of 
party which desecrates the noblest sentiments of the 
human heart, and which, in the accomplishment of its 
unholy purposes, hesitates at no violence of assault on 
all which is held sacred by the wise and good. . . . Mr. 
President, in olden times a viper gnawed a file." ^^ 

In both the graces and the defects of Benjamin's ora- 
tory it is interesting to note the riches of a well-stored 
mind. He was a reader all his life, a lover of Shakespeare 
and the great poets, quoted them and filled his thoughts 
with them ; and this, too, although he was self-educated 
and had to fight hard for book hours, perhaps all the 
sweeter when thus purchased. 

The strongest feature of Benjamin's speaking is a sin- 
gular frankness and directness. Now and then he comes 
out with an abrupt sentence that must have struck the 
Senate like cold water. " I did not think I could be pro- 
voked to say another word on this subject, of which I am 
heartily sick." 12 '< If the object [of a certain bill] is to pro- 
vide for friends and dependents, let us say so openly." ^^ 
** For you cannot say two words on this floor on any 
subject whatever that Kansas is not thrust into your 
ears." '* 

If the test of professional ability is success, Benjamin 
has been surpassed by few. His income, for America of 
the fifties, was very large, and when, an old man, he 
rebuilt his fortunes in London, it climbed again from 
nothing to seventy or eighty thousand dollars a year. I 



128 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

can find no evidence whatever that these earnings were 
based upon improper or dubious practice. Just as Pro- 
fessor Butler has succeeded in showing that the stories 
about the brief sojourn at Yale were purely scandalous, 
so, I think he has made it clear that Benjamin's con- 
nection with various financial schemes before the war, 
while perhaps indiscreet, was in no way dishonest. And 
certainly his professional standing in Louisiana was to- 
tally different from that of a man like Benjamin F. Butler 
in Massachusetts. 

Moreover, no one can read the universal testimony to 
his position at the English Bar without believing him to 
have been a high-minded gentleman. Blaine's contention 
that the English admired Benjamin because they hated 
the North must indeed be allowed some weight at the 
beginning of his career. But no man could have gained 
increasingly for fifteen years the esteem and personal 
affection of the first lawyers in London, if he had not de- 
served it. "The success of Benjamin at the English Bar 
is without parallel in professional annals," says a good 
authority, 15 and attributes the fact that it excited no jeal- 
ousy to " the simplicity of his manners, his entire freedom 
from assumption, and his kindness of heart." i^ Lord 
Coleridge called him "the common honor of both Bars, 
of England and of America" ; ^^ and Sir Henry James, 
speaking at the farewell dinner given Benjamin on his 
retirement, says : "The honor of the English Bar was as 
much cherished and represented by him as by any man 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 129 

who has ever adorned it, and we all feel that if our profes- 
sion has afforded him hospitality, he has repaid it, amply 
repaid it, not only by the reputation which his learning has 
brought to us, but by that which is far more important, 
the honor his conduct has gained for us." ^^ Few men 
can show a higher testimonial to character than that. 

Now let us turn to the political aspects of this varied 
L-areer. The Senate reports in the " Congressional Globe " 
during the later fifties show how constant and how many- 
sided was Benjamin's activity. What has struck me, 
especially in some of the large semi-private interests that 
he espoused, is that he failed. He should not have failed. 
He may have been a great lawyer. To be a great man, 
he failed too often. 

On public questions he invariably took the extreme 
Southern view ; but it is characteristic that he did this 
without exciting animosity. No senator seems to have 
been more popular on both sides of the house, and his 
adversaries regarded him with respect, sometimes even 
with affection. 

When the Confederate Government was organized, 
Benjamin was first made attorney-general. From this 
position he quickly passed to that of secretary of war. 
Here again he was a failure. He had no special knowl- 
edge, and this made him obnoxious to soldiers. Even 
his extraordinary quickness and business instinct were 
hardly equal to learning a new profession in the com- 
plicated conditions then prevailing. Charges of laxity 



I30 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

and of corruption amounting to treason are brought 
against him, I think wholly without foundation. But he 
struck one rock after another and was finally wrecked by 
the unfortunate affair of Roanoke Island. Wise charged 
that the secretary ordered him to remain in an impos- 
sible position, refused him powder, and so led up to the 
disaster. Benjamin remained silent at the time, but after- 
wards explained that there was no powder, and that he 
willingly submitted to public censure rather than reveal 
the deficiency. This is assuredly to his credit. Congress 
censured him, however, and a resolution was offered, 
though tabled, " that it is the deliberate judgment of this 
House that the Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, as secretary of 
war, has not the confidence of the people of the Con- 
federate States, nor of the Army, to such an extent as to 
meet the exigencies of the present crisis." ^^ 

Davis, thereupon, to show his confidence in his favor- 
ite, transferred him to the still higher post of secretary 
of state. It is said that Benjamin here served his chief 
in innumerable ways, drafting public documents, sug- 
gesting and advising on lines quite outside the technical 
limits of his office. The best known of these activities are 
in regard to the Hampton Roads Peace Commission and 
the attempt to make military use of the negroes and even 
to emancipate them for the sake of securing foreign sup- 
port. In these attempts also Benjamin failed, or what 
slight measure of success there was went to the credit of 
others. 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 131 

In the State Department proper he devoted all his 
energy for three years to securing foreign recognition 
— and failed again, where perhaps no one could have 
succeeded. A side issue in this departmental work has 
thrown more serious discredit on his reputation than any 
other charge that can be plausibly brought against him. 
Acting generally under Davis, he authorized and in- 
structed the agents in Canada who were to attack the 
Northern States from the rear, that is, who not only fos- 
tered discontent and insurrection, but carried out the raid 
on St. Albans and attempted to burn New York with its 
thousands of innocent women and children. There is 
no evidence that Benjamin planned these undertakings. 
But we know that he received and read his agent's, 
Thompson's, account of them, and we do not know that 
he ever expressed any disapproval. Looked at now, in 
cold blood, they seem without excuse. We can only re- 
mind ourselves that passion has strange pleas, and that 
the whole South believed the North to be capable of 
worse deeds than any Thompson contemplated, nay, to 
have done them. 

In this matter of the Canadian attempts Mr. Rhodes 
is very careful to distinguish Davis from his secretary 
and to express disbelief that the president could have 
been capable of such infamy, while implying that his 
subordinate might perfectly well have been so. I hardly 
think Benjamin's character deserves this sharp distinc- 
tion. In any case, I have been most interested to find 



132 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

one of the very greatest of Virginia's statesmen and 
philanthropists expHcitly advocating just such an attempt 
as that made to fire New York. "She [England]," writes 
Thomas Jefferson in 1812, " may burn New York, indeed, 
by her ships and Congreve rockets, in which case we must 
burn the city of London by hired incendiaries, of which 
her starving manufacturers will furnish abundance." ^o 

In all these manifold schemes of Benjamin I look in 
vain, so far as the records go, for evidence of large, far- 
reaching, creative statesmanship. Again and again I ask 
myself what Cavour would have thought, have devised, 
have done in that position. For it is sufficiently manifest 
that a man of Cavour's type was what the Confederacy 
needed — and did not get. Yet would any man of high 
statesmanlike genius and close practical grasp have at- 
tempted to solve the impossible problem of reconciling 
the loose theory of state rights and the fiercely central- 
ized government required to cope with the overwhelm- 
ing force of the United States? 

At any rate, Benjamin was no Cavour. His biographer 
does indeed point out that he had something of the 
dreamy side of his race, as shown in the unpractical con- 
ceptions of his early business effort. But dreamers do 
not make statesmen, usually quite the contrary. And 
Benjamin's practical statesmanship was, I think, rather 
of the makeshift order. It is very rare that in his diplo- 
matic correspondence we find any reference to the cloudy 
future of the Confederacy, and the only instance in which 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 133 

he amplified on the subject, predicting that "North 
America is on the eve of being divided into a number of 
independent Governments, with rival, if not conflicting, 
interests," 21 is distinctly in the nature of a dream. 

A dream also, the dim vision of a Jewish prophet, and 
clung to with a Jewish prophet's obstinacy, is his ever- 
recurring hope of European recognition, which should 
free the South and end the war. Here, again, it seems 
to me that Cavour would either have put the thing 
through or early seen its hopelessness. Even Benjamin's 
own foreign agent declares that failure should have been 
foreseen and accepted at a very early stage. 22 But Benja- 
min would not foresee, would not accept. Up to the very 
last months he believed that recognition must come, that 
Europe could not be so foolish as to neglect its own in- 
terest. And long after the war he told Russell, in London, 
that "though I have done with politics, thank God! I 
consider your government made a frightful mistake which 
you may have occasion to rue hereafter." 23 

Of a similar character, though even more general in 
the South and less persistent in Benjamin, was the delu- 
sion as to the supremacy of cotton. 

If, then, Benjamin was not a statesman of a high order 
or of large and commanding ideas, how was it that he so 
long held such a prominent place in the Confederate 
Government? The answer is simple and two good rea- 
sons furnish more than the solution of the difficulty. 

In the first place, Benjamin was an admirable man of 



134 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

business, and those who have had the privilege of meet- 
ing a good many business men know how rare an ad- 
mirable man of business is. He was a worker. While he 
loved ease and luxury, he was capable of enormous labor, 
did not shirk long hours or cumbrous documents, went 
right at a job and finished it. He would remain at his 
desk, when necessary, from eight o'clock one morning 
till one or two the next. He would work Sundays and 
holidays. And he did this without fatigue, complaint, or 
murmur, always cheerfully and easily, and as if he en- 
joyed it. 

Mere industry does not go far, however, or not the 
whole way. Benjamin had what is worth far more than 
industry, system. When he went into the War OfBce, he 
was no soldier and could not please soldiers. But he was 
an administrator, and if he had stuck to that phase, I im- 
agine he would have been useful. He began right away 
to bring order out of hopeless confusion, organized, sys- 
tematized, docketed. " Having had charge of the War 
Department but a few days," he writes, "my first effort 
was to master our situation, to understand thoroughly 
what we had and in what our deficiencies consisted, but 
I have been completely foiled at all points by the absence 
of systematic returns." -^ And again, " Without them 
[returns] we cannot, of course, administer the service ; 
can make no calculations, no combinations, can provide 
in advance with no approximation to certainty, and can- 
not know how to supply deficiencies." ^s A systematizer 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 135 

of this order was a useful creature in Richmond during 
those four years. 

But another quality, even more valuable than business 
habits, sustained Benjamin in his ofBce : he knew how to 
handle men. He watched character perpetually, studied 
the motives of others, their wants, their weaknesses, 
knew how to adapt himself to them. "No shade of emo- 
tion in another escaped Mr. Benjamin's penetration," 
writes the keen-sighted Mrs. Davis, whose warm admi- 
ration of her husband's adviser is one of his best cre- 
dentials. " He seemed to have a kind of electric sym- 
pathy with every mind with which he came into contact, 
and very often surprised his friends by alluding to some- 
thing they had not expressed nor desired him to inter- 
pret." 26 

How useful this quality was in dealing with Davis can 
only be appreciated by those who have studied carefully 
the peculiarities of that noble but complicated person- 
age. A patriotic idealist in purpose, he wished to save 
his country, but he wished to save it in his own way. 
From his subordinates he desired labor, quick compre- 
hension, a hearty support of all his plans and methods. 
Advice he did not desire, and those who gave it had to 
give it with tact and extreme delicacy. Here was exactly 
the chance for Judah P. Benjamin. Advice he did not 
especially care to give, but no man could divine Davis's 
wishes with finer sympathy, no man could carry out his 
plans with more intelligent cooperation and at the same 



136 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

time with heartier self-effacement. The patient skill 
with which the result was accomplished is well indicated 
by Mrs. Davis when she says : " It was to me a curious 
spectacle ; the steady approximation to a thorough friend- 
liness of the President and his war minister. It was a very 
gradual rapprochement^ but all the more solid for that 
reason." 27 J. B. Jones, who disliked and distrusted his 
Jewish superior, analyzes the relation between presi- 
dent and secretary with much less approval. "Mr. B. 
unquestionably will have great influence with the Presi- 
dent, for he has studied his character most carefully. He 
will be familiar not only with his ' likes,' but especially 
with his * dislikes.' " ^s And when the diarist hears that the 
president is about to be baptized and confirmed, he takes 
comfort because " it may place a gulf between him and 
the descendant of those who crucified the Saviour," 29 If 
we accept Benjamin's own words, however, and I think 
we may, we shall conclude that his devotion to Davis 
was founded, at any rate in part, on a sincere esteem and 
admiration. Writing to the London "Times," after the 
war, he says : " For the four years during which I have 
been one of his most privileged advisers, the recipient 
of his confidence and sharer to the best of my ability in 
his labors and responsibilities, I have learned to know 
him better perhaps than he is known by any other living 
man. Neither in private conversation nor in Cabinet 
council have I ever heard him utter one unworthy thought, 
one ungenerous sentiment." ^o 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 137 

No one, then, could long retain Davis's confidence 
without an abundant supply of tact and sympathy. Prob- 
ably the two men who made most use of these qualities 
in their dealings with the President were Lee and Ben- 
jamin. But a most instructive difference strikes us here. 
Lee's tact sprang spontaneously from natural human 
kindness. He treated his inferiors exactly as he treated 
his sole superior and was as courteous and sympathetic 
to the humblest soldier as to the president of the Con- 
federacy. With Benjamin it is wholly otherwise. He 
was at the War Office for just six months. In that time 
I will not say he quarreled with everybody under him, 
but he alienated everybody, and quarreled with so many 
that his stay there is but a record of harsh words and 
recrimination. One brief telegram to McCulloch will 
abundantly illustrate the cause of this state of things : 
** I cannot understand why you withdrew your troops 
instead of pursuing the enemy when his leaders were 
quarreling and his army separated into parts under dif- 
ferent commanders. Send an explanation." ^i 

This sort of dispatch, from a lawyer who had never 
seen a skirmish to generals of old experience and solid 
training, was not likely to breed good feeling, much less 
to restore it. It did not. Benjamin had trouble with Wise, 
trouble with Beauregard, trouble repeatedly with J. E. 
Johnston, and drove Jackson to a resignation which, if it 
had been accepted, might have changed the course of 
the w^ar. This is surely a pretty record for six months. 



138 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

And observe that in many instances the secretary ap- 
pears to have been right and wise. This only emphasizes 
the misfortune of his getting into such difficulty. The 
suavity, the graceful tact, which served him so well with 
Davis, seem to have deserted him in dealing with those 
over whom he had control. Or rather, it is said that 
the very suavity produced double exasperation when it 
was used merely to glove an arbitrary display of au- 
thority. " When I do not agree with Benjamin, I will not 
let him talk to me," said Slidell, who was his friend ; "he 
irritates me so by his debonnair ways." ^^ 

And now, with the qualities of Benjamin's public ca- 
reer clearly suggested, let us turn for a moment to his 
private life and see how that helps to illuminate the other. 

To begin with his social interests, involving, as they 
do, what we have just been discussing. As with Davis, 
so with all equals, in daily intercourse his manner was 
full of courtesy, some even say, charm. To be sure. Wise 
calls him " oleaginous " ; but Alfriend, who knew him 
well, goes to the other extreme : "I have never known a 
man socially more fascinating than Judah P. Benjamin. 
He was in his attainments a veritable Admiral [szc] 
Crichton, and I think, excepting G. P. R. James, the 
most brilliant, fascinating conversationalist I have ever 
known." ^3 One is tempted to blend these two views in 
Charles Lamb's pleasant characterization of the singer 
Braham : " He was a rare composition of the Jew, the 
gentleman, and the angel ; yet all these elements mixed 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 139 

up so kindly in him, that you could not tell which pre- 
ponderated." 34 

Less prejudiced judges than those above quoted ren- 
der a verdict which is still decidedly favorable. In his 
earlier career in the United States Senate Benjamin is 
said to have been generally popular, and to have en- 
deavored always to foster social relations ; and Sumner, 
his bitterest opponent, bore testimony to his kindness of 
manner and conformity to the proprieties of debaters 
W. H. Russell speaks of his " brisk, lively, agreeable 
manner" and calls him "the most open, frank, and 
cordial of the Confederates whom I have yet met." ^s 
Thomas F. Bayard, surely a connoisseur, says that Ben- 
jamin's "manner was most attractive — gentle, sympa- 
thetic, and absolutely unaffected," and that "he certainly 
shone in social life as a refined, genial, charming com- 
panion." 37 And the testimony of his English friends is 
equally decided. "A charming companion," writes Sir 
Frederick Pollock, " an accomplished brother lawyer, and 
a true friend, one I could not easily replace." ^s 

In many of these social sketches of Benjamin there is 
a curious insistence on his smile, which seems to have 
been as perennial as Malvolio's, if a little more natural. 
"The perpetual smile that basked on his Jewish lips," ^9 
says the acrid Pollard. And Jones, in his "Diary," recurs 
to it almost as a third-rate playwright does to a character 
tag, so much so that on one occasion he notes Mr. Ben- 
jamin's appearance without his smile as of inauspicious 



I40 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

omen. "Upon his lip there seems to bask an eternal 
smile ; but if it be studied, it is not a smile — yet it bears 
no unpleasant aspect." ^^ 

The implication in some descriptions that the smile 
and the courtesy were only on the surface is, I think, 
clearly unjust. Benjamin was not, perhaps, a philanthro- 
pist ; but there is record of many kindly deeds of his, 
none the less genuine for not being trumpeted. He once 
lost sixty thousand dollars by indorsing a note for a 
friend. *i Although never especially enthusiastic for his 
religion, he was ready to give help to a fellow Hebrew 
who wanted it, and it is said that old and needy Con- 
federates in London did not apply to him for aid in vain. 

Also, the smile was for himself, as well as for others. 
That is, it represented an attitude towards life. Through 
many ups and downs and odd turns and freaks of For- 
tune, Benjamin was never discouraged, never depressed. 
I do not think this meant in him any great strain of 
heroic fortitude. The smile shows that. It was an easy- 
going egotism, which neither touched nor was touched 
deeply, a serene, healthy well-being, which let the blows 
of adversity strike and glance off, which turned trifles 
into great pleasures and very great evils into trifles. 
When work was needed, he worked with all the strength 
that was in him. When he failed and fell, instead of 
being crushed, he jumped up, smiled, brushed ofT his 
clothes, and worked again. Where will you find a finer 
instance of recovery after utter disaster than this man's 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 141 

rise in old age from nothing to fortune in a new country 
and an untried spliere ? Even in his formal and official 
correspondence you catch little glimpses of the easy, 
devil-may-care fashion in which he took responsibilities 
that would have crushed others. Thus, he ends a long 
letter of difficulty and trouble to his predecessor in the 
War Office : " What a bed of roses you have bequeathed 
me ! " ^2 Or he writes to Sidney Johnston — of all men : 
" In Mississippi and Tennessee your unlucky offer to re- 
ceive unarmed men for twelve months has played the 
deuce with our camps." ^^ Fancy Lee or Davis writing 
that! 

For a man armed with a smile of this kind religion is a 
superfluity and it appears that Benjamin had none. He 
practically dropped his own and never had the interest 
to pick up any other. He did, indeed, — unless he has 
been confused with Disraeli, — tell a sneerer at Judaism 
that his ancestors were receiving the law from Deity on 
Mount Sinai when the sneerer's were herding swine in 
the forests of Saxony ; ^^ but this was to make a point 
for the gallery, just as his burial in Paris with Catholic 
rites w2iS pour piaire aux dajnes, unless it was wholly the 
ladies' doing. His religion would not have been worth 
alluding to but for the delightful anecdote of Daniel 
Webster's assuring him and Maury, the scientist, that 
they were all three Unitarians together. Benjamin denied 
this, and invited Webster to dine with him to prove it. 
They dined and argued, but Benjamin would not be con- 



142 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

vinced, though he did not know enough about the Bible 
to hold his ground.^5 Qh, to have been present at that 
dinner 1 What conversation — and what wine and cigars ! 

As this discussion may imply, and as abundant evi- 
dence proves, Benjamin, for all his smiles and all his 
optimism, was neither cold nor always perfect in com- 
mand of his temper. " He was like fire and tow," says 
Mrs. Davis, perhaps exaggerating in view of an incident 
to be shortly mentioned, " and sensitive about his dig- 
nity." 46 I do not imagine this went very deep, but at any 
rate the Southern sun had touched the surface with a 
singular vivacity and petulance. Even in age and in Lon- 
don fogs the temper would fly out. As when, before the 
solemn dignity of the House of Lords, Benjamin was 
arguing a case and heard the Lord Chancellor mutter 
" Nonsense"; the barrister stopped, gathered up his pa- 
pers, and abruptly departed. So high was his standing 
at that time that the Chancellor felt obliged to make 
things right by an apology. 

Even more entertaining is the earlier spat between 
Benjamin and Davis. Senatorial tempers were high- 
strained in Washington in the fifties and men sometimes 
fell foul of friends as well as foes. The slap-dash, boyish 
interchange of curt phrases, even as staled in the cold 
storage of the "Congressional Globe," must have re- 
joiced Seward and Sumner. Its straight-from-the-shoul- 
der quality, coming from such reverend sages, recalls the 
immortal dialogue which Dr. Johnson reports as occur- 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 143 

ring between himself and Adam Smith. "What did 
Smith say, sir?" Dr. Johnso7t : "He said I was a liar." 
"And what did you say?" "I said he was a" — never 
mind what. Benjamin's language was more senatorial, 
but not too much so. " The Senator is mistaken and has 
no right to state any such thing. His manner is not 
agreeable at all." Davis : "If the Senator happens to 
find it disagreeable, I hope he will keep it to himself." 
Benjamin : " When directed to me, I will not keep it to 
myself, I will repel it instanter^ Davis: "You have got 
it, sir." 47 

And pistols for two, of course. But kind friends pre- 
vented the future Secretary of State from shooting at his 
President. More seriously instructive and profitable is 
the contrast between the explanations offered by the two 
men in the Senate. Davis's is in his best vein, nobly 
characteristic, as thoroughly frank as it is manly and dig- 
nified. Benjamin's is well enough, but cautious, as if he 
were afraid of his position and anxious not to say a word 
too much.48 

The keen sensibility, whether superficial or not, which 
appears in these incidents, characterized Benjamin in 
other ways besides temper. He liked excitement. It was 
the excitement of public contest that made for him, I 
think, the charm of his profession. After the war he was 
offered an excellent opening in Parisian finance, but he 
preferred to fight his way up in the English courts. And 
there is a remarkable sentence in his speech at the fare- 



144 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

well dinner, when he mentions having been ordered to 
avoid the excitement of active practice : " I need hardly 
tell an audience like this that to tell me or any person of 
a nature like mine to abstain from all possible excitement 
is to tell him to cease the active exercise of the profession ; 
for without the ardor of forensic contest what is the pro- 
fession worth?" ^^ 

He liked excitement in the form of games also ; liked 
billiards and whist. Russell even records as Washington 
scandal that he lost the major part of his very large in- 
come at cards.50 His biographer denies this, but in rather 
mild fashion, asserting that he was " not a rabid gam- 
bler," ^^ and Benjamin himself seems rather less con- 
cerned at the accusation than at Russell's ingratitude in 
making it.^^ 

On graver points of morals I find no trace of any 
charge against Benjamin whatever. But, in spite of his 
immense capacity for work, he was generally known as 
a lover of ease and good living. This, assuredly no vice 
in itself, came almost to appear like one in the last 
hungry months of the Confederacy. Very characteristic 
of the man, more so, perhaps, than she meant it, is Mrs. 
Davis's little sketch : " He used to say that with bread 
made of Crenshaw's flour, spread with paste made from 
English walnuts from an immense tree in our grounds, 
and a glass of McHenry sherry, of which we had a scanty 
store, ' a man's patriotism became rampant.' " ^^ Alfriend, 
also, gives us a significant touch : " Mr. Benjamin loved 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 145 

a good dinner, a good glass of wine, and revelled in the 
delights of fine Havana cigars. Indeed, even when Rich- 
mond was in a state of siege he was never without 
them." 5* Right beside this I do not think it cruel to put 
his own letter to soldiers who were starving on half 
rations and to whom a crust was luxury [italics mine]. 
" Hardship and exposure will undoubtedly be suffered 
by our troops, but this is war, and we cannot hope to 
conquer our liberties or secure our rights by ease and 
comfort." ^5 

On this very point of good eating, however, we must 
at the same time note the man's kindliness and gentle 
heart. What he liked he thought others would like and 
was glad to get it for them, if he could. Thus Mrs. Davis 
records that at a very good dinner Benjamin seemed ill 
at ease and confessed that he was thinking how much his 
brother-in-law, left alone at home, would enjoy some of 
the delicacies ; whereupon he received a share to take 
with him and went away contented. 

Undeniably, in the matter of relatives Benjamin ap- 
pears at his best, and his affection and thought for them 
— thoroughly racial attributes — are pleasant to read 
about. With his French Catholic wife he did not indeed 
wholly agree. There was no formal separation or quar- 
rel. But for the greater part of the time, she lived in Paris 
and her husband in America. Benjamin's biographer at- 
tributes this largely to faults of her disposition. Perhaps 
he is right. But I would give a good deal for Mrs. Ben- 



146 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

jamin's view of her husband. So far as I know, only one 
recorded sentence of her writing twinkles in the memory 
of men. But that one is a jewel. It paints the woman ; it 
paints the Southern and Creole class, and much that is 
Northern and human also ; it suggests wide possibilities 
of domestic infelicity ; and it shows charmingly that Ben- 
jamin had found the superlative in an art in which he 
could furnish a good comparative himself. He writes to 
his wife urging economy, and she writes back : " Do not 
speak to me of economy; it is so fatiguing." ^e Miss 
Austen might have invented the phrase, she could not 
have bettered it. 

But Benjamin afforded rather a singularity in matri- 
monial affairs by apparently caring much more about 
his wife's relatives than he did about her. And to those 
connected with him by blood, his daughter, sisters, nieces, 
and nephews, he was deeply and devotedly attached. 
His few extant letters to them form very attractive read- 
ing and show a man as lovable as he was clever. They 
are full of a light and graceful playfulness, gossiping of 
trivial things in just the way that love appreciates. 

Yet how infinite are the shades and diversities of char- 
acter ! For all this graceful playfulness in his private let- 
ters, for all his reported wit in conversation, I do not find 
that Benjamin had much of that complicated emotion 
which we call humor. Is it that he does not view life from 
a large enough angle? In this regard how striking is the 
difference between him and Lincoln! When the Lord 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 147 

Chancellor said, "Nonsense," Lincoln would not have 
stalked out. He would have told a story and the Lord 
Chancellor would have wished to do the stalking. When 
Davis said a sharp thing, Lincoln would have said a 
gentle one, and got the best of it. Read in the ** Con- 
gressional Globe " the debate on secession and see how 
Baker of Oregon simply demolishes Benjamin, not by 
argument, but by pure Lincolnian quizzing, which Ben- 
jamin cannot meet because he cannot understand it. 

Benjamin smiled perpetually, Lincoln, I imagine, rarely. 
But how much more Lincoln's smile meant ! Benjamin's 
cheerful countenance gave no weight at all to the trag- 
edies of existence. 

And now, I think, we are in a position to consider what 
was Benjamin's real attitude towards the Confederacy. 
First, was he an able, selfish, scheming, unscrupulous 
adventurer, who played the game simply for his own 
personal ambition and aggrandizement, a sort of Talley- 
rand ? This may be excluded at once. It would be diffi- 
cult to imagine Talleyrand writing confidentially, as 
Benjamin did in regard to the release of Brownlow : 
" Better that any, the most dangerous enemy, however 
criminal, should escape, than that the honor and good 
faith of the Government should be impugned or even 
suspected." " If there were no other evidence that the sec- 
retary did not belong to the type above indicated, little 
more would be needed than his own clearly genuine com- 
parison of Gladstone and Disraeli, all in favor of the 



148 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

former, who, indeed, is said to have been his idol.^s q[i_ 
more's brief description is vital on this point : •' There is 
something, after all, in moral power. Mr. Benjamin does 
not possess it, nor is he a great man. He has a keen, 
shrewd, ready intellect, but not the stamina to originate, 
or even to execute, any great good or great wicked- 
ness." 59 

But again, some who recognize Benjamin's honesty 
assert that he took up the Confederate cause as a mere 
law case, utterly indifferent to the wrong or right, or to 
any personal issue, giving it his best service as long 
as he could, then turning cheerfully to something else. 
Here also I think there is error. The man's whole heart 
was in the work and he felt for it as deeply as he could 
feel. Passage after passage in his public and private 
writings shows indisputably the partisan hatred and the 
devoted enthusiasm of the loyal citizen. " I entertain no 
doubt whatever that hundreds of thousands of people at 
the North would be frantic with fiendish delight if in- 
formed of the universal massacre of the Southern people, 
including women and children, in one night." ^° " No 
people have poured out their blood more freely in de- 
fence of their liberty and independence, nor have en- 
dured sacrifices with greater cheerfulness than have the 
men and women of these Confederate States. They ac- 
cepted the issue which was forced on them by an arro- 
gant and domineering race, vengeful, grasping, and 
ambitious. They have asked nothing, fought for nothing. 



JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 149 

but for the right of self-government, for independence." ^i 
" How it makes one's breast swell with emotion to wit- 
ness the calm, heroic, unconquerable determination to 
be free that fills the breast of all ages, sexes, and con- 
ditions." 62 

Like many other Southerners, Benjamin rather melo- 
dramatically declared that he would never be taken 
alive. He never was. Like many others, he declared that 
he would never, never, submit. Lee, Johnston, Davis, 
Stephens submitted ; Benjamin never. His Jewish obsti- 
nacy would not be overcome. 

No, it is utterly unjust to deny that his patriotism was 
genuine or that he gave his very best sincerely and in his 
way unselfishly to what he felt to be his country. Only with 
him nothing went deep. When the struggle was over, it 
was over. Some measure of his sunny cheerfulness must 
be credited to self-control. Most of it was temperament. 
Lee, too, made no complaint ; but the tragedy of his 
people was written perpetually on his face. Benjamin's 
face would not take impressions of that nature. Not one 
regret for a lost cause or a vanished country is to be 
found in his few personal letters that have come down to 
us. ** I am contented and cheerful under all reverses," he 
writes. And, though this particular phrase was used to 
cheer his anxious family, it is intimately characteristic 
of his permanent attitude. 

The truth is, he was a man placed in a position too 
large for him, and he rattles about in it. The crises of 



I50 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

history always exhibit such misfits, in lamentable num- 
ber. But with Benjamin the impression prevails that he 
was of remarkable ability, an adventurer of genius but 
of little character. This view was strong upon me when 
I began to study him. Now I am forced to the opposite 
conclusion, that his character was respectable, if not un- 
exceptionable, but his ability mediocre. Davis, while 
meaning only to be complimentary, damned the ability 
with the faintest possible praise, to perfection : " Mr. 
Benjamin, of Louisiana, had a very high reputation as a 
lawyer, and my acquaintance with him in the Senate had 
impressed me with the lucidity of his intellect, his sys- 
tematic habits, and capacity for labor." ^s 

In short, he was an average, honorable, and, in poli- 
tics, rather ineffectual gentleman. Perhaps he would 
have preferred a diflferent verdict. If so, he should not 
have destroyed those papers. 



VI 

Alexander H. Stephens 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born In. Wilkes County, Georgia, February il, 1812. 

Franklin College, Athens, Georgia, 1828. 

Country school teacher, 1833. 

Admitted to the bar, 1834. 

Member of State Legislature, 1836. 

Member of Congress, 1843. 

Retired, 1859. 

Vice-President of Confederacy, February 9, 1 861. 

Took part in Hampton Roads Conference, February 3, 1865. 

Arrested, May 11, 1865. 

Imprisoned in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, till October 12, 1865. 

Member of Congress, 1873. 

Governor of Georgia, 1882. 

Died March 4, 1883. 




ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 



VI 

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 

Human nature is full of contradictions, which give it 
much of its charm. But the character and career of Alex- 
ander H. Stephens seem to involve contradictions be- 
yond the share of most of us. 

In physique he was abnormally frail, delicate, and sen- 
sitive, nervous sometimes to the point of hysteria ; yet 
he had the spirit of a gamecock, was ready for a duel 
when honor required it, walked right up and struck a far 
bigger man who had insulted him and who nearly mur- 
dered him in consequence. Perhaps with some bragga- 
docio, but with more truth, he said of himself : *' I am 
afraid of nothing on earth, or above the earth, or under 
the earth, but to do wrong." ^ 

He was studious by nature, longed for quiet, and soli- 
tude, and meditation. Yet he lived in a perpetual whirl, 
either drawn by a thousand activities abroad, or beset by 
a throng of visitors at home. " I supposed when I got 
this room I should be by myself, . . . but I do nothing 
the livelong day but jabber with each transient interlo- 
per who may be disposed to give me a call." ^ 

He was probably one of the most logical, clear-headed, 
determined defenders of slavery and of the thorough 
subordination of black to white. Yet few men have been 



154 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

more sensitively humane, more tenderly sympathetic 
with suffering in either white or black. The negroes loved 
him, and on one occasion after the war three thousand 
freedmen gathered on his lawn and serenaded him with 
passionate admiration and devotion. 

No man was more bitterly opposed to secession and to 
the war than he was. No Southerner made a harder or 
more nearly successful fight to prevent the withdrawal 
of his State. Yet when Georgia went, he not only went 
with her, but became the vice-president of the Confed- 
eracy. He himself puts this contrast vividly in his diary, 
written while a prisoner at Fort Warren, in 1865. " How 
strange it seems to me that I should thus suffer, I who 
did everything in my power to prevent [the war]. . . . 
On the fourth of September, 1848, I was near losing my 
life for resenting the charge of being a traitor to the 
South, and now I am here, a prisoner under charge, I 
suppose, of being a traitor to the Union. In all, I have 
done nothing but what I thought was right." ^ 

Nor is the list of Stephens's contradictions yet summed 
up — not nearly. The second officer of the Confederacy 
and a devoted champion of its cause, he was persist- 
ently opposed to the conduct of the Government from 
beginning to end. He opposed Davis radically as to the 
finances and as to cotton, he opposed conscription, he 
opposed martial law, he considered that the president's 
whole course was dictated either by gross misjudgment 
or by a belief in the necessity of dictatorial power. And 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 155 

here we have, I think, a rather piquant attitude for a man 
who held the next to the highest place in a new-born 
nation fighting for life and death. 

These considerations make the vice-president, if not 
the greatest, certainly the most curious and interesting, 
figure in the lightning-lit panorama of Confederate his- 
tory. 

In analyzing Stephens's career, the question of health, 
negatively important for most leaders of men, becomes 
enormously positive. From his birth in 18 12 to his death 
in 1883, his life seems to have been a long disease, for- 
ever on the verge of terminating fatally. It may be that 
the rough experiences of pioneer farming in his child- 
hood — the corn-dropping, the sheep-tending, exposure, 
hardship — injured him permanently, or saved him, who 
knows ? So with the long, desperate battle for an educa- 
tion and a profession, in solitude and poverty. The battle 
may have weakened, may have toughened, perhaps both. 

At any rate, we rarely hear of him, except suffering. 
All the descriptions of him emphasize some phase of 
physical weakness and inadequacy. His own account at 
twenty-one sets the note : " My weight is ninety-four 
pounds, my height sixty-seven inches, my waist twenty- 
seven inches in circumference, and my whole appearance 
that of a youth of seventeen or eighteen. When I left 
college, two years ago, my net weight was seventy 
pounds. If I continue in a proportionate increase, I shall 
reach one hundred pounds in about two years more."^ 



156 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Later portrayals have sometimes an unkindly touch, as 
the caustic diatribe of the robust Dick Taylor, no doubt 
in some points slightly justified : " Like other ills, feeble 
health has its compensations, especially for those who 
unite restless vanity and ambition to a feminine desire for 
sympathy. It has been much the habit of Mr. Stephens 
to date controversial epistles from *a sick chamber,' 
as do ladies in a delicate condition. A diplomat of 
the last century, the Chevalier d'Eon, by usurping the 
privileges of the opposite sex, inspired grave doubts 
concerning his own." ^ 

But most observers rather seem impressed with the 
contrast between the man's physical deficiencies and his 
splendid spiritual strength. At the height of his congres- 
sional career in Washington (1855) a keen-sighted jour- 
nalist noted that, in the stress of great occasions, " the 
poor, sickly, emaciated frame, which looks as if it must 
sink under the slightest physical exertion, at once grows 
instinct with a galvanic vitality which quickens every 
nerve with the energy of a new life, imparts to every 
feature a high, intellectual expression, makes the languid 
eyes glow like living coals, and diffuses a glow of re- 
viving animation over the pallid countenance." « Even 
more striking is another picture taken in the same place 
in 1872, after war and imprisonment had done their 
worst. " An immense cloak, a high hat, and peering 
somewhere out of the middle a thin, pale, sad face. How 
anything so small and sick and sorrowful could get here 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 157 

all the way from Georgia is a wonder. If he were laid 
out in his coffin, he need n't look any different, only that 
the fire would have gone out in the burning eyes. Set as 
they are in the wax-white face, they seem to burn and 
blaze. That he is here at all to offer the counsels of mod- 
eration and patriotism proves how invincible is the soul 
that dwells in this sunken frame. He took the modified 
oath in his chair, and his friends picked him up and 
carried him oS. in it as if he were a feather." ^ 

How far this fiery energy of the soul was responsible 
for the weary failure of the body, who shall say ? But 
never was there man in mind and spirit more heartily 
and vividly and incessantly and at every point alive than 
Alexander H. Stephens. From childhood he fought his 
way in the world, fought for education, fought for suc- 
cess as a lawyer, fought for political distinction. He liked 
fighting. " I was made to figure in a storm, excited by 
continual collisions. Discussion and argument are my 
delight ; and a place of life and business therefore is 
my proper element. ... I long to be where I shall have 
an argument daily." ^ 

In age and in prison the fire, indeed, might burn a 
little low. "Personal ambition had no part in anything 
I have done." ^ But in the early days the man panted to 
get upward, to do something, to be something. ** I be- 
lieve I shall never be worth anything, and the thought 
is death to my soul. I am too boyish, childish, unman- 
ful, trifling, simple in my manners and address." ^^ When 



158 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

he had become something — not enough — never enough 
— the record of work he did is, for an invalid, quite in- 
explicable ; or rather, it fully explains the invalidism. " I 
rise and breakfast at eight ; then commence with my 
mail. Frequently I do not get half through that before 
I am bored almost to death with calls on business of all 
sorts ; then to the Committee at ten ; then to the House 
at twelve ; then to dinner at four ; then calls before I 
leave the table till twelve at night. Then I take up and 
get through my unfinished reading of letters and news- 
papers of the morning; and then at one o'clock get to 
bed. I now have about one hundred letters before me 
unanswered." ^^ 

This petulance, this vivacity, this mad energy of living 
in a frame half dead remind one constantly of Voltaire, 
who, with his little, weak, and shattered body, went on 
for fifty years, making enemies and smashing them, 
puncturing social rottenness with his fierce wit, blasting 
others' great lies and telling petty lies of his own, some- 
times pitiable, sometimes malignant, often fascinating, 
but always, always splendidly alive. Stephens made few 
enemies, told no lies, was neither pitiable nor malignant ; 
but he was splendidly alive until the coffin-lid put out 
the torch that seemed to have exhausted its fuel long 
before. 

But though Voltaire had plenty of physical ills, I find 
no evidence that he suffered from melancholy or mental 
depression. Stephens did. The jar of over-tense nerves 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 159 

mingles curiously with his eager bursts of ambition and 
aspiration : " My feelings and hopes seem ever to be 
vibrating between assurance and despondency. My soul 
is bent upon success in my profession, and when indulg- 
ing in brightest anticipations, the most trivial circum- 
stance is frequently sufficient to damp my whole ardor 
and drive me to despair." 12 

This tendency to depression was not merely the re- 
action from disappointed hopes or dreams unrealized. It 
was a constitutional melancholy, which, not only in youth, 
but even in middle life, seems to have eaten into the 
man's very soul. The words in which he describes it most 
definitely have a strange, poignant bitterness that wrings 
the heart : ** Sometimes I have thought that of all men 
I was most miserable ; that I was especially doomed to 
misfortune, to melancholy, to grief. . . . The misery, the 
deep agony of spirit I have suffered, no mortal knows, 
nor ever will. . . . The torture of body is severe ; I have 
had my share of that. . . . But all these are slight when 
compared with the pangs of an offended or wounded 
spirit. The heart alone knoweth its own sorrow. I have 
borne it these many years. I have borne it all my 
life." " 

To his beloved brother Linton he endeavors to describe 
his spiritual malady. " It is the secret of my life. I have 
never told it to any one." ^^ But his speech, usually so 
lucid, is incoherent, stumbling, and obscure. It appears 
that his physical deficiencies wounded him, as they did 



i6o CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Byron ; he shrank and withered under the jeers and 
mocking looks of those who could not see his soul. Then 
the stung soul rebounded and strove with every ounce 
of will to make the mockers love him by doing good to 
them in strange new ways of overwhelming potency. 
But the explanation is neither clear nor wholly sufficient, 
sounds manufactured to fit facts beyond the vision of 
even the explainer. All we can say is that we get dim 
glimpses of a spiritual hell. 

What is supremely interesting about Stephens is that 
he neither accepts this condition of things nor submits to 
it. Such a wretched frame for such a fierce vitality might 
easily have made another Leopardi, veiling all the light 
of heaven in black pessimism, cursing man and nature 
and God with cold irony for the vile mistake of his cre- 
ation. Stephens fights his ills, makes head against them, 
never lets himself be really prostrated by physical tor- 
ture or mental agony. Worsted for the moment, he 
forever reemerges, with some new refuge, some new 
comfort, some new device of cure. 

One day he tries Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy," 
finds it excellent on homoeopathic principles, and 
recommends it to his brother, though Burton himself 
is inclined to advise all melancholy persons to shun his 
majestic folio. 

More serious than such bookishness is the clear deter- 
mination to overcome mental misery by effort of will. 
** I have in my life," he says, ** been one of the most 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS i6i 

miserable beings that walked the earth. . . . Without 
enjoyment, without pleasure, without hope, and without 
sympathy with the world." ^^ But the unfailing remedy, 
for those who will but try it, is the absolute control of 
thought. •' Never let the mind dwell upon anything 
disagreeable — turn it to something else." "Great and 
heroic effort was necessary at first and for a long time." 
But " with a proper discipline of oneself in this way, 
ever keeping the passions in perfect subjection, content- 
ment and happiness are attainable by all." ^^ I do not 
read that he ever attained them, but others may by fol- 
lowing his precepts. He fought for them, at any rate. 

Stoical self-control was not his only refuge. He had 
one higher — God. In his youth he declined to be edu- 
cated for the ministry and I do not think he was ever 
consistently satisfied as to speculative religion. But he 
seems to have had a keen and mighty sense of the 
divine in spiritual things and in his hours of agony he 
seeks solace there and finds it. He devotes a portion of 
every day to communion with God in prayer and gets 
from it comfort in his anguish, light in the valley of dark 
shadows, and the growth of a kindlier, sweeter temper 
towards his fellow-men. ^^ In old age, in sickness, in soli- 
tude, in prison, he sums up thus the mighty help that 
God has been to him : " That the Lord is a strong hold 
in the day of trouble I know. But for his sustaining 
grace, I should have been crushed in body and soul long 
ere this." is 



i62 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Nevertheless, with a temperament so introspective, 
brooding, and sensitive, it is doubtful whether even re- 
ligious contemplation would have saved Stephens from 
melancholy and morbidness. It might have lifted him 
above the pessimism and misanthropy of Leopardi only 
to land him in the deeper spiritual wretchedness of 
Amiel. Contemplation, even divine, is not always suffi- 
cient to save such a temperament from ruining itself. 

A better, surer remedy, at least a needed balance- 
wheel, is action, constant contact with the busy, outward, 
stupid hurry of the world. Stephens knew this and had 
the courage and the energy to force himself out of him- 
self. He may have possessed " a charm against loneli- 
ness," as his brother writes ; but he knew that in loneli- 
ness lay his danger and he kept as much as possible in 
the bright current of turbulent humanity, even when all 
his inclinations bade him fly from it. " It seems to me 
that but for an effort that no other mortal upon earth 
would make, I should sink into profound indifference to 
all things connected with men and their affairs. But with 
that effort that I daily exert, to the persons about me I 
appear, I have no doubt, to be one of the most cheerful 
and happy men upon earth." ^^ 

As a result of this he had people near him always. 
His hospitality was notorious even in the hospitable 
South. Though he was far from wealthy, his mansion, 
Liberty Hall, was open to all men at all times. Rich and 
poor, high and low, ignorant and learned, gathered there, 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 163 

and feasted at the owner's spiritual table as well as at 
the material. " Distinguished visitors from everywhere 
sought the sage's dwelling ; so did hungry tramps, black 
and white." 20 

Like many persons of melancholy temperament, he 
was rich in delightful social qualities, made his guests 
feel thoroughly at home, studied their needs and minis- 
tered to them. And that specially frequent concomitant 
of melancholy, a dainty and sometimes a boisterous sense 
of humor, he had in a very high degree. His letters and 
his diary abound with good stories. What a quaint comic 
invention is the imaginary Finkle, through whom at 
irregular intervals he narrates his autobiography. His 
prison life at Fort Warren appears to him to be full of 
humorous matter. When he is not weeping over it, he is 
laughing at it. One of the best specimens of his dry wit, 
though more bitter than is usual with him, is the com- 
ment with which he closes some rather severe remarks 
on Davis. " It is certainly not my object to detract from 
Mr. Davis, but the truth is that as a statesman he was 
not colossal. . . . After the Government was organized 
at Montgomery, it was reported that he said it was 
' now a question of brains.' I thought the remark a good 
one." 21 

These social qualities — cheerfulness, kindliness, sym- 
pathy — won friends for Stephens everywhere. In col- 
lege, though poor, he was generally beloved and gath- 
ered all the young men around him. During his political 



i64 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

life in Washington it was the same. The venerable John 
Quincy Adams saluted him with verses more notable for 
feeling than for genius. Members of all parties treated 
him with affection and respect. When he gave up his 
congressional seat in 1859, he received the unusual honor 
of a dinner tendered by a list of members of both houses 
of Congress without party distinction, headed by the 
Speaker of the House and the Vice-President. " I like 
Stephens," wrote an opponent. " With all his bad politics 
he is a generous-hearted fellow and of brilliant genius." 22 

This universal popularity was by no means confined 
to men of Stephens's own rank in life, but was perhaps 
even greater among the common people. " Thank God 
for little Alex," shouted crowds assembled on his first 
appearance after being wounded by a political adver- 
sary. And the negroes, especially those in his own serv- 
ice, were as enthusiastic and devoted as the whites. 

It will be evident that qualities like these seemed to 
pave the straight way to political success. In a certain 
sense Stephens had such success in large measure. Why 
that success was limited will become clearer as we go on. 
But in the tactful management of men for a political pur- 
pose he had few superiors. And his art was largely sin- 
cerity. He made it manifest that he himself acted only 
from a profound and well-reasoned conviction ; that he 
would throw over his party and even his constituents in 
a moment, if his conviction was against them ; and the 
remnant of honesty which is latent in all men, politicians 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 165 

as well as others, responded to such straightforward 
uprightness. History records few finer things than 
Stephens's manly stand against the rush of secession in 
his State. Protesting in the face of angry thousands, he 
almost swept the current back. And what is perhaps most 
impressive of all, he so far retained the confidence and 
affection of his opponents that they elected him a chief 
officer of their government when they had established it. 

The same qualities that made Stephens acceptable in 
general social and political circles made him deeply be- 
loved in the more intimate relations of life. He never 
married. Yet children were very dear to him and he was 
keenly susceptible to the charm of women's society. 
Twice at least he was in love. In the first case poverty 
as well as ill-health obliged him to control his passion. 
On the second occasion, he was already in Congress and 
well-to-do in the world. The match was suitable and the 
lady, it seems, not unwilling. But he would not ask her 
to marry so frail a bit of humanity. " A woman's due," 
he thought, " was a husband on whom she could lean 
and not an invalid whom she must nurse." ^s It was, per- 
haps, a mistake, for both him and her. At any rate, it 
added to his bitterness of spirit. Once again one is re- 
minded of Leopardi. 

In every way Stephens was a man to whom affection 
meant much. He had the deepest love for home, for 
Georgia, her hills, and streams, and forests. His outcry 
for her from his Northern prison is poignant in its pathos : 



i66 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

" Let my days be brought to an end in my own native 
land ! Let my last breath be of my own native air I My 
native land, my country, the only one that is country to 
me, is Georgia. The winds that sweep over her hills are 
my native air. There, I wish to live, and there to die." 24 
His home farm may be barren, may be simple. It has 
neither luxury nor splendor. But to him it is everything. 
When a young man, just beginning life, with boundless 
ambition, a good opening and large salary were offered 
him away from home. But he unhesitatingly preferred 
to practice in his native town, though earning only a few 
hundred dollars a year.^^ And in old age and exile, as he 
turned generally to Georgia, so he longed most of all for 
the remembered haunts of youth and happiness. " That 
old homestead and that quiet lot. Liberty Hall, in Craw- 
fordsville, sterile and desolate as they may seem to others, 
are bound to me by associations tender as heartstrings 
and strong as hooks of steel." ^s 

These local affections sometimes take the place of hu- 
man ties, and there are men — men especially — who, if 
they can live where they will, care not with whom they 
live. It was not so with Stephens. His love for his friends 
was as deep as his love for home. Among the great num- 
ber of these none was nearer than Robert Toombs, and 
the marked contrast between the two men makes their 
intimate relation singularly charming. Stephens was little 
and frail ; Toombs huge and solid. Stephens was a 
thinker ; Toombs a liver. Toombs conquered men ; Ste- 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 167 

phens charmed them. Very often the two took different 
sides and opposed each other energetically. Yet at the 
same time they praised, admired, and loved each other, 
and were rarely estranged, even for a brief interval. In 
the midst of the secession fury there was a certain cold- 
ness ; but after Stephens's great anti-secession speech 
Toombs led the cheering for the beloved enemy, though 
he remarked to a friend who complimented him on it, 
** I always try to behave myself at a funeral." ^7 

The best of Stephens's affection, however, went to his 
family. His mother died when he was very young, but 
his love for his father's memory has a depth and tender- 
ness which is quite irresistible. Surely few sons could 
write, in old age, a tribute so impressive and so complete 
as the following: " Never was human anguish greater 
than that which I felt upon the death of my father. He 
was the object of my love, my admiration, my reverence. 
It seemed to me impossible that I could live without 
him ; and the whole world for me was filled with the 
blackness of despair. . . . Whenever I was about to do 
something that I had never done before, the first thought 
that occurred to me was, what would my father think of 
this? . . . The principles and precepts he taught me 
have been my guiding-star through life." ^s 

Even deeper and more absorbing was Stephens's love 
for his young half-brother, Linton, whom he educated, 
trained, and advised through boyhood and young man- 
hood, and who afterward became his closest confidant. 



i68 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

To Linton he poured out all his hopes and sorrows and 
desires both public and private. Linton himself was a 
man of great ability, deservedly prominent in Georgia 
politics. He was also a man of singular charm, as fully 
appears from Waddell's excellent life of him. To have 
been looked up to and worshiped by such a man is not 
the least of Stephens's claims upon out interest, and the 
elder brother returned the devotion of the younger with 
all the passion of a heart keenly sensitive and not dis- 
tracted from its sole object by either wife or child. The 
perpetual recurrence of Linton's name in his brother's 
letters and diary almost recalls Madame de Sevigne's 
unlimited adoration of her daughter. " Oh, if I had Lin- 
ton with me now, how full would be my joy notwith- 
standing I am a prisoner ! How light is my burden com- 
pared with what it has been ! The full dawn of day is 
certainly upon me ! May the sun of my deliverance soon 
arise ! Oh, may Linton soon come ! " 29 

The affection which could not satiate itself with hu- 
manity overflowed further in a notable tenderness for 
animals, especially for dogs. Stephens had alwaj's one 
or more of these to tend, to confide in, or to frolic with. 
When absent from home, he writes of them with a solici- 
tude which is sometimes amusing, but more often pa- 
thetic. Over the blindness of one of them, Rio, he sor- 
rows as over the affliction of a friend. He walks with Rio 
to guide the dog's steps and he buries him with a touch 
as characteristic in its simple vanity as in its profound 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 169 

emotion: "The world will never see another Rio. And 
few dogs ever had, or ever will have, such a master. 
Over his grave I shed a tear, as I did over him fre- 
quently as I saw nature failing." ^o 

Perhaps it is possible to overdo this matter of sym- 
pathy with animals. It seems to some of us that the uni- 
versal pity of the nineteenth century rather tended to 
increase the aggregate of sentient woe than to diminish 
it. When Uncle Toby spares the pestilent fly, we love 
him for it, especially as he was not aware of the huge 
maleficence with which later investigation was to load 
that domestic parasite. But when Stephens mourns over 
the necessary destruction of prison bedbugs, he seems to 
push altruism to the edge of the ludicrous — and over. 
" I have often felt sorry for what I have to do to these 
bloodsuckers. Most willingly would I turn them loose 
and let them go away, if they would go and stay, but 
this they will not do. Between them and me, therefore, 
there is * an irrepressible conflict.' Either I or they must 
be extinguished." ^^ 

In the more important field of pity for human suffering 
and of attempts to relieve the wretched and to assist the 
struggling and downtrodden, we can have nothing but 
admiration for Stephens's persistent endeavor. He does, 
indeed, as with regard to Rio above, indulge in very 
frank statement of his own merit in this kind : " While I 
have been here I have with free will and of my own ac- 
cord labored, I think, more for the benefit of others than 



lyo CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

I have for myself, which is more than many mortals I 
ever knew could say for themselves." ^2 But the merits 
require no such emphasis. They are great and indis- 
putable. Probably few persons of his means have done 
more for others than Stephens did. He was constantly 
educating young men, so that all those of promise in his 
home town appealed to him and many from outside. 
During the war he was devoted in his attendance upon 
prisons and hospitals, visiting them often with fruit and 
flowers, which, I think, was inventing a charming func- 
tion for that generally useless functionary, a vice-presi- 
dent. " Whenever I see a head at an iron grate, my heart 
is interested," ^3 he wrote, before he had passed four 
months behind an iron grate himself. It may be noted 
that one of the points in which he differed from the Gov- 
ernment was his belief that prisoners of war should be 
set free, since the Confederacy was not able to provide 
for them properly. If sometimes, with men as with ani- 
mals, his heart outran his head, who will blame him ? It 
is worth while to be fooled occasionally by vice and idle- 
ness, worth while to be " like a ship otherwise stanch but 
eaten up by barnacles that he cannot dislodge" for the 
sake of winning the slave's simple eulogy : " He is kind 
to folks that nobody else will be kind to. Mars Alex is 
kinder to dogs than mos* folks is to folks." ^4 

It is to be observed here, further, that Stephens's 
charity went much back of the hand. Oftentimes the 
fingers spread widely when the heart is tight shut, and 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 171 

some who are ready to give to a beggar are less ready- 
to forgive an enemy. In spite of momentary outbursts 
and conflicts Stephens cherished no grudges and hated 
no one. The quick petulance of his nervous tempera- 
ment sometimes leads him to express himself violently 
in his private letters. But the tone of his controversial 
book on the war is throughout tolerant with a tolerance 
which I find in few besides Lincoln and Lee. Indeed, it 
is interesting that one of Lincoln's last efforts at concili- 
ation before the great struggle should have been his 
well-known correspondence with Stephens, in which both 
men appear so much to advantage. 

This tolerance is still more marked in dealing with 
friends than with foes. Coming fresh from the reading 
of so many volumes of reminiscences that were harsh 
and bitter, filled with striving to justify the author at the 
expense of all those who had fought side by side with 
him, I was especially impressed with the gentleness and 
courtesy of Stephens's book. He disagrees with many. 
He condemns none. Even of Davis, whose policy he 
thought absolutely wrong, he has no unkind or cruel 
personal criticism. They met as friends, he says, and 
they parted as such. " I doubt not that all — the Presi- 
dent, the Cabinet, and Congress — did the best they 
could from their own conviction of what was best to be 
done at the time." ^^ It does not seem a great admission ; 
yet how few are ready to make it. 

The root of this kindly and universal tolerance is to be 



172 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

found in a cardinal principle of Stephens's nature, which 
it is now time to take up and investigate. The man was 
essentially an intellectualist, and guided his life, far more 
than most men do, by systematic reasoning. I have al- 
ready made it quite clear that this does not mean that 
he was cold or insensible. Most certainly he was not. 
Neither does it mean that he had the calm, dispassionate, 
scientific spirit of the nineteenth century, which observes 
all facts curiously without special eagerness to relate 
them to preconceived theories. Stephens was a deductive 
thinker of an older type. He reasoned from accepted 
generalizations to very positive conclusions. And even 
in this line his thinking was neither profound nor orig- 
inal. In his letters he is perpetually turning over rather 
glaring commonplaces, and the comparison of his diary 
with that of Amiel, which I have already suggested, will 
show at once that the Southern statesman had ver}^ little 
power of going to the bottom of things. 

Nevertheless, in a tumult of passions, and preconcep- 
tions, and prejudices, he strove mightily to clear his 
mind of cant, to get at the conclusions of calm reason as 
to the terrible questions put before him, and then to act 
on those conclusions singly, honestly, unflinchingly, with 
absolute disregard of party, or tradition, or convention. 
In a time when the still voice of thought was well-nigh 
drowned in the furious outcry of politicians and fanatics, 
surely this quality must receive a high degree of com- 
mendation. 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 173 

It was this which made him so patient with those who 
differed from him, this which made him so genuinely 
humble and modest. He reasoned to his conclusions and 
acted on them. But others had their own conclusions 
and must act on them. Oddly enough this very intel- 
lectual tendency which made him modest made him vain ; 
as we have exactly the same tendencies exhibited in 
Cicero, as confirmed an intellectualist as ever lived, and 
placed in times and situations quite similar to Stephens's. 
To a man like Cicero it is equally natural to admit that 
his opponent may be right and to feel that his opponent 
and everybody else should recognize the simple fact of 
Cicero's own power and achievement. In Stephens the 
vanity is, of course, in no way so colossal as Cicero's, 
though at times it finds an expression curiously like that 
of the Roman orator: "I made a speech on Wednes- 
day in Sparta. I produced I was told a powerful effect. 
Many said it was the greatest speech I ever made. This 
I say to you though but to few would I so express 
myself " ; ^^ which reminds one of Professor Phillips's 
characterization, " A chronic magnifier of his own im- 
portance." 37 But the allowance for possible error in his 
reasoning is as large and fine in Stephens as ever in any 
man. "It may be that if the course which I thought 
would or could then save it [the Confederate Govern- 
ment] , or would or could have saved it at any time, had 
been adopted, it would have come as far short of success 
as the one which was pursued ; and it may be, that the 



174 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

one which was taken on that occasion, as well as on all 
the other occasions on which I did not agree, was the 
very best that could have been taken." ^s How refreshing 
that is in all the jar and clash of positive assertions and 
violent opinions and dogmatic assurance of a world of 
might-have-beens. One should read also the admirable 
letter in which Stephens discusses the possibilities, if the 
whole burden of the Government, in the event of Davis's 
death, should fall upon his own shoulders.^s The clear 
appreciation of the abstract end to be attained is no finer 
than the full recognition of the immense difficulties and 
his own unfitness to encounter them. 

Yet if Stephens was modest where he admitted the 
possibility of error, and anxious for confirmation when 
he mistrusted his own judgment — " I did not wish to be 
coarser in my language than the occasion required. Was 
I enough so or not? Was I too short or not?"^^ — he 
was rocklike when he had deduced his conclusions, knew 
his ground, and felt that he was right. " I cannot be mis- 
taken — I never was deceived a second time by any 
man," ^^ he writes as to human character ; and an inter- 
ruption during his celebrated answer to Campbell, of 
Ohio, brought out one of those tremendous sentences in 
which a man strips his whole soul bare all at once. " You 
are wrong in that," interjects Campbell. "No, sir," re- 
plies Stephens. "I am never wrong upon a matter I 
have given as close attention to as I have given to this." 
So a god might answer.^^ 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 175 

And he would stand by these intellectual conclusions 
to the issue of life or death. Huge Judge Cone had called 
Stephens a traitor. Stephens retorted with the lie and 
threatened to slap the judge's face. They met. The judge 
demanded a withdrawal. Stephens refused and struck. 
There was an instant collision. Cone pulled out a knife 
and slashed his opponent again and again, got him down, 
and cried, ** Retract, or I '11 cut your damned throat." 
" Never! " said Stephens ; "cut if you like." He caught 
the descending knife-blade in his bare hand, which was 
cut to pieces, and he went to the hospital, when his ad- 
versary was dragged ofif, with eighteen knife-thrusts in 
his body and arms. The man simply could not say he 
was wrong when he knew he was right. It is like the 
legend of Galileo, who succumbed to the gentle per- 
suasions of the Church and yet whispered, " E pur si 
muove^ 

It is most interesting to follow out this intellectual ten- 
dency in the different phases of Stephens's life. To be- 
gin with, he was a man of system and exactness. Mani- 
fold and varied as his occupations were, he yet, where 
possible, arranged his time according to a schedule and 
gave certain hours to certain pursuits. Moreover, he had 
a fine memory for minute details and was always strong 
in dealing with figures and statistics. Art and the artistic 
side of literature seem to have had little attraction for 
him. His reading, which was both careful and extensive, 
was mainly in history and in lines of practical thinking 



176 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

and morals. So with the natural world. He had, as al- 
ready noted, a profound, instinctive love for the sur- 
roundings that meant home. Beyond this, he was chiefly 
interested in minute observation of the weather and took 
just pride in having been the means of publishing the 
reports of the weather bureau which have since become 
of such immense value to the country. 

As regards religion, I have already pointed out its sig- 
nificance to Stephens on the emotional side of his nature. 
He always retained a respect for the literal interpretation 
of the Bible, which was perhaps rather inconsistent with 
advanced thought, even in his day. Yet in some quarters 
he had the reputation of an atheist, and it is evident from 
his diary that he had a strong disposition to subject 
religious views to the strict intellectual test which he 
applied to other matters. It seems odd at first, yet it is 
really characteristic, that with this tendency he should 
have combined a strong tincture of superstition. His 
diary contains numerous discussions of good and ill 
luck, and he takes an undeniable interest in seeing 
the new moon over the right shoulder. " If there is 
anything in signs, I shall certainly have good luck this 
moon." 43 

In his own profession of the law Stephens's fine intellec- 
tual sincerity stands out fully and well proves that success 
requires neither dishonesty nor shuffling. " What busi- 
ness do you follow, Alex ? " said his uncle to him in the 
early days. " I am a lawyer." After a solemn silence, the 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 177 

uncle spoke again. " Alex, don't you have to tell lies ? " ^^ 
Alex did not have to tell lies. Hear what he says, review- 
ing his career in old age : ** No advocate should ever 
assert as matter of fact in his client's case what he knows 
is not such ; any code of morals justifying him in this 
does not deserve the name." ^^ And again, more person- 
ally : " My rule from the time I was admitted to the bar 
was : first, to investigate a case submitted to me, to in- 
quire into the facts and the law applicable to it ; then, if 
I did not believe the party entitled to success before the 
court, I told him so and declined to appear or prosecute 
the case." ^^ Stephens believed that the object of law was 
justice and that the lawyer's high function was to recon- 
cile differences and remedy evils. He detested prejudice 
of party, or locality, or class, or station. This feeling he 
carried so far that it sometimes itself became prejudice 
and led him into a singular tirade against what is surely 
a most worthy and respectable portion of the community. 
" If I am ever to be tried for anything, may Heaven de- 
liver me from a jury of preachers ! . . . Their most 
striking defect is a want of that charity which they, above 
all men, should not only preach but practise." And he 
speaks further of "The usual bloodthirsty propensity" 
of "that calling." 47 Stephens's religion was different 
enough from Voltaire's. Yet here one would think Vol- 
taire was speaking. 

It was in politics, however, that Stephens's natural 
characteristics came to their fullest fruition. As a speaker 



178 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

he was much praised and was effective and successful. 
"All lungs and brains," one admirer said of him.^s g^t 
to me the most impressive eulogy is Lincoln's. Think of 
winning these words from such a source: "I just take 
up^ my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a 
little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, has just con- 
cluded the very best speech of an hour's length I 
ever heard. My old withered dry eyes are full of tears 
yet." 49 

Nevertheless, Stephens mistrusted oratory, as one who 
knew its dangerous power.^o When he had conviction 
with him, he could give it all the graces of persuasive 
eloquence. But conviction was essential. Without it the 
rest was but as a tinkling cymbal. Where conviction led 
him he would go, no matter what friend deserted him or 
what party disclaimed him. He even carried his anti- 
partisan feeling so far as to hope that the presidential 
election of 1852 might fall into the House of Represen- 
tatives. " It would be a decided step towards putting an 
end to these party conventions and irresponsible bodies 
of men who now virtually make choice of our chief mag- 
istrate to the entire subversion of the theory of the Con- 
stitution." 51 He argued for the abolition of his own seat 
in Congress. He told the South that their agitators had 
done more than anything else to bring on the war.^^ 
He fought secession with all his might. "If they [the se- 
cession leaders] without cause destroy the present Gov- 
ernment, the best government in the world," he wrote, 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 179 

" what hope would I have that they would not bring un- 
told hardships upon the people in their efforts to give us 
one of their own modeling ? " ^^ At the same time he was 
an ardent advocate of slavery, believing — with Lee — 
that slavery presented the most satisfactory solution of 
the difficult relation between whites and blacks and that 
it was the duty of the superior race to protect and care 
for the inferior. On behalf of his State he resented the 
usurping attitude of the Richmond Government. Yet 
when the state governor began to act as the president 
had acted, Stephens was just as hot in opposition. 

All these things he did in perfect good temper and 
kindliness and he could not understand why his oppo- 
nents would not take it so. He was only acting from his 
convictions. He supposed they were acting from theirs. 
Why should they be angry with him ? Yet they were, and 
too many of his compatriots sympathized with the caustic 
remark of General Taylor, " Mr. Stephens, with all the 
impartiality of an equity judge, marked many of the vir- 
tues of the Government north of the Potomac and all 
the vices of that on his own side of the river." ^^ 

First, last, and always the compass of Stephens's po- 
litical life was his belief in human liberty, as expressed 
in the compact between sovereign States known as the 
Constitution. Admirably characteristic is the account of 
his youthful interview with President Jackson. Stephens 
expressed some doubt as to the action of the troops 
against the Indians, in view of state jurisdiction. "Juris- 



i8o CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

diction, by the Eternal ! When the United States Mail 
is robbed and citizens murdered l"^^ shouted the presi- 
dent. But Stephens was ready to be murdered himself 
rather than give up a principle. Why should not others 
be? I really believe he would have preferred being torn 
to pieces by a mob to having that mob repressed by 
troops illegally. This is fine, but is perhaps carrying in- 
tellectualism rather far. 

So after the war. He was ready to accept the result 
and to work loyally for the future. But he could not give 
up the principle — never. And he wrote his immense, 
two-volume book — dialogued, thoroughly Platonic, 
thoroughly intellectual, in which, as in Plato, men of 
straw are set up to be bowled over by masterly dialectic 
— a learned book, an awe-inspiring book, as dead as a 
volume of eighteenth-century sermons. 

In short, he was an idealist, an ideologue, Napoleon 
would have said, who would have introduced reason into 
this chaos of unreason, this curious and fascinating in- 
ferno, which we call life. Because life would not heed 
him he resented it, but in the gentlest and most affec- 
tionate fashion, returning good for evil in every way he 
knew. 

In the political world, where he figured most, he seems 
to have been pitifully ineffectual. We saw in the case of 
Benjamin that the lack of deep and heartfelt convictions, 
a shallow opportunism, prevented the man from mak- 
ing any distinguished mark on the history of his time. 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS i8i 

Curiously enough, with Stephens the same result followed 
from an exactly opposite cause, and the excess of convic- 
tion most nobly nullified a prominent and notable career. 
But I feel sure that posterity will adjust the difference 
and that Stephens will grow more and more in our his- 
tory as a figure of commanding purity, sincerity, distinc- 
tion, and patriotism. 



VII 

Robert Toombs 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born in Wilkes County, Georgia, July 2, i8lO. 

Entered Franklin College, Athens, Georgia, 1824. 

Admitted to the bar, 1830. 

Married Julia DuBose, 1830. 

Entered State Legislature, 1837. 

Entered Congress, 1844. 

Supported Compromise of 1850. 

Entered U.S. Senate, 1853. 

Pro-slavery speech in Tremont Temple, January 24, 1856. 

Confederate Secretary of State, February 27, 1861. 

Resigned, July 24, 1861. 

Brigadier-General, 1861-62. 

Resigned, March 4, 1863. 

Active in framing of Georgia Constitution, 1877. 

Died, December 15, 1885. 




ROBERT TOOMBS 



VII 

ROBERT TOOMBS 

" He is the most remarkable man in many respects that 
the South has ever produced and it is doubtful if the 
records of a lordlier life than his can be found in the his- 
tory of our Republic. He has never moved as other men, 
never worked by ordinary standards. He has been kingly 
in all his ways, lavish in his opinions, disdaining all ex- 
pediency or deliberation, and moving to his ambitions 
with a princely assumption that has never been gainsaid 
by the people, and seldom by circumstances." ^ 

This paragraph, printed in a Georgia paper at the 
time of Toombs's death, for all its extravagance of state- 
ment and eulogy, strikes a good note for beginning the 
study of him. There was something lordly in the man, 
something commanding ; and it is a matter of the great- 
est interest to see why his achievements did not corre- 
spond to his apparent gifts. 

All agree that his physique was most impressive. Con- 
stant riding and other vigorous exercise kept him in ex- 
cellent condition up to advanced years, though the as- 
sertions of some of his biographers as to his unfailing 
health are contradicted by many passages in his letters. 
Mrs. Davis's admirable portrait of him should be borne 
in mind. " Mr. Toombs was over six feet tall, with 



i86 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

broad shoulders ; his fine head set well on his shoulders, 
and was covered with long, glossy black hair, which, 
when speaking, he managed to toss about so as to 
recall the memory of Danton. His coloring was good, 
and his teeth brilliantly white, but his mouth was some- 
what pendulous and subtracted from the rest of the 
strong face. His eyes were magnificent, dark and flash- 
ing, and they had a certain lawless way of ranging 
about that was indicative of his character. His hands 
were beautiful and kept like those of a fashionable 
woman." 2 

These physical qualities must be taken into account in 
considering Toombs's speaking, and it was as a speaker 
that he most impressed his contemporaries. Though his 
enunciation was too thick and harsh, Stephens considered 
him to be one of the greatest stump orators of any age 
or country.3 All the vigor, all the violence, all the fiery 
ardor and eager enthusiasm of that passionate tempera- 
ment were poured into his words. He spoke to convince, 
if possible ; if not, to overwhelm. Energy, frankness, 
directness were the qualities of his oratory. His great 
admirer. Colonel Reed, does not believe that he corrected 
his speeches, does not believe that he could correct them. 
** Of all speakers and orators I ever knew or heard of, he 
has used the file the least." ^ 

For the man was essentially a fighter and would yield 
to no one. His college life, in the late twenties, was in 
the main a record of unruly pranks, ending in a hasty 



ROBERT TOOMBS 187 

request for honorable dismissal before some exceptional 
enormity became known to the authorities. 

A little later he earned the title of captain by serving 
under General Scott in the Creek War. 

The chief fighting of Toombs's early life, however, was 
done at the bar. He threw himself into the study of law 
with the passion which he showed in everything. At first 
he did not succeed in practice. Perhaps clients distrusted 
his too combative qualities. But his energy, enthusiasm, 
and splendid gift of speech soon overcame this coldness, 
and wealth began to pour in upon him in a steady stream. 
He not only had "a passion for the contest of the court- 
house," but he was willing to prepare himself for it by 
determined labor. He would bear down opposition by 
the rush and vehemence of his oratory ; but, if neces- 
sary, he could also analyze a complicated question, finan- 
cial or other, in its minutest details. No one was more 
voluble where speech seemed indicated ; yet when cir- 
cumstances required brevity, he could eliminate every 
superfluous word. In one instance his adversary had 
exhausted the court, the jury, and the subject. Toombs 
simply rose and said : " May it please your Honor, 
Seizin, Marriage, Death, Dower," sat down, and won his 
case.^ 

Few lawyers of that day kept out of politics. None 
was less likely to keep out of them than Toombs. He 
early began to devote his thought and his tongue to 
what he considered the welfare of his country, and he 



i88 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

continued to do so, in one way or another, almost until 
his death. But to a temperament like Toombs's the 
natural course of politics was usually opposition. Heaven 
knows, there is enough to fight in the world, if a man 
wants fighting. And Toombs did. When he saw a ras- 
cal's head, he hit it, and few even determined optimists 
will deny that he might be kept busy. I cannot vouch for 
the following comment on him ; but if not true, it is well 
invented : ** Revolution was the one instinct of his nature, 
absolute as that of sex in other men. ' Do you mean 
revolution ? ' a gentleman once asked of him in my pres- 
ence. * Revolution, yes ; always, and ever, and from the 
first, revolution. Revolutionary times,' he added, * there 
are, and there will be no good times but revolutionary 
times.' " ^ And almost equally significant in the same 
line are his own undisputed words, written when he was 
looking for a refuge after all the tempests of the Civil 
War : "I now think best of Mexico. It has many ad- 
vantages for the people who seek to establish themselves 
of the better classes, I do not care for its disorders. That 
perhaps is not unfavorable to ' novi homines.' " ' And 
this was a broken man of nearly sixty ! 

Thus, both as representative and senator, Toombs's 
voice was apt to be heard loud in the negative. Curi- 
ously enough, he and Stephens were always intimate 
friends and their course was usually the same, but from 
somewhat different reasons. Stephens's cool intellect saw 
the doubts, the modifications, to any popular course of 



ROBERT TOOMBS 189 

action. If his clear vision led him away from his friends, 
he left them, but he left them with reluctance. Toombs, 
too, had his intellectual convictions, often admirably- 
sane, and broad, and far-reaching ; but he had no re- 
luctance about following them anywhere. 

To begin with, he hated the party system. " A nurs- 
ery of faction," ^ he called it. It was not recognized by 
the Constitution. Why should he recognize it ? 

Acting on this principle, he fought friends as well as 
foes. If the common cry was war, this panoplied herald 
of good tidings could raise his trumpet voice for peace. 
Why should we fight England over a boundary ? He 
was for peace — for honorable peace. " It is the mother 
of all the hopes and virtues of mankind." ^ Why should 
we annex Texas and plunder Mexico ? Greed, greed, all 
greed. "A people who go to war without just and suffi- 
cient cause, with no other motive than pride and the love 
of glory, are enemies to the human race and deserve the 
execration of all mankind. What, then, must be the 
judgment of a war for plunder?" ^0 

With domestic matters there was the same strenuous 
ardor. Congress itself was not to be respected, if not re- 
spectable. He speaks of '* members of the two Houses of 
Congress who come here three months in one year and 
eight months in another — which is about three times too 
long in my judgment." Public improvements and public 
facilities which tended to abridge the rights of the indi- 
vidual — he would have none of them. The post-office 



I90 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

— a dubious thing, the post-office. "I do not think it 
right, before God, for me to make another man pay my 
expenses." ^^ Rivers, harbors ! What are they compared 
to corruption ? " Instead of leaving the taxes or the money 
in the pockets of the people, you have spent nine months 
in endeavoring to squander and in arranging to have 
more to squander in the next Congress." ^^ Railroads ! 
Why, our old Roman virtue will not allow us even to 
approve of one to benefit our own home town, i* 

Then there are pensions, a pestilent legacy of a heroic 
struggle. The old soldiers themselves, if they are the 
men I take them for, will refuse them. Hurt my popu- 
larity ? What do I care for my popularity ? Do you sup- 
pose I am here to please myself ? I had rather be at 
home, on my farm, with my wife, my slaves, and my 
cattle. Another thing, this cry of Americanism, Know- 
Nothingism. I scorn it to your faces. And you may turn 
me out, if you like. Are not Catholics as good as Prot- 
estants, if they serve God ? So he spoke, in the height 
of the fanatical fury, and openly gave a large subscrip- 
tion to a Catholic church. 

Everywhere it was the individual against the mob, 
high or low, forward or backward. The rich were not to 
be favored at the expense of the poor. At the same time, 
let his enemies criticize his own lavish living and see 
what they would get. " Who would say that he had not 
earned his money? He had a right to spend it as he 
chose. Perish such demagogy — such senseless stuff." " 



ROBERT TOOMBS 191 

And the people cheered him for his candor and au- 
dacity. 

As for that mysterious phantom, the money power, 
which broods, like a shadow, over the young twentieth 
century, this Boanerges of liberty divined, detected, and 
defied it sixty years ago, in a little diflerent form, but in 
language which might come from the White House to- 
day. " I have perceived that this mischief is widespread, 
this corruption greater, this tendency to the destruction 
of the country is more dangerous. The tendency to place 
the whole government under the money power of the 
nation is greater and greater." ^^ 

And while many of these protests were uttered in the 
name of the sacred principle of State Rights, let that 
principle itself once impose any obnoxious restraint, and 
its sanctity became as questionable as that of any other. 
Thus, in opposing certain obstructions to a projected 
scheme, he cries out : " Public opinion will take them 
away, even though a sovereign state may stand up for 
them. Nothing else can reach Pennsylvania in this mat- 
ter but public opinion, and public opinion will prevail in 
Pennsylvania as it has done elsewhere." ^^ And the pub- 
lic opinion of the world finally prevailed in all the States 
of the Confederacy, in spite of Toombs and thousands 
like him, with their inviolable sovereignty. 

In all these various causes of opposition there was the 
same impetuous ardor of argument, the same splendid 
fury of invective, which, backed by the masterful pres- 



192 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

ence and the thunderous voice, must have gone a long 
way to produce submission, if not conviction. Listen to 
the way in which he upbraids the Senate for sloth and 
hesitancy. ** Are we incapable of deciding subjects here? 
Why, sir, the gravest questions of peace and war and 
finance and everything concerning a great government, 
are decided in almost all countries in one sitting. Here, 
after years of labor, seas of words, boundless, illimitable 
seas of words, and speeches to enlighten others, we come 
now to what I trust is a consummation of this difficulty, 
and we are asked for time because gentlemen do not un- 
derstand it. I do not think they will ever understand it 
any better." ^^ 

But of course all other disputes and battles were trifling 
and of minor significance compared to the great struggle 
between slavery and abolition, between North and South. 
The opportunities given by such a conflict were things 
of ecstasy to a nature like Toombs's, and he breathed 
the fiery atmosphere as if it were his native clime. Scene 
after scene is depicted, in which he stood out alone 
against a howling mob, bellowing at them what pleased 
him without regard to what pleased them, and in the end 
overcoming even hatred by mere force of temperament. 

Toombs's power in this regard was divined by Ste- 
phens long before the actual crisis came and the latter 
gives a striking account of sending his friend to New 
York to face a bitterly hostile audience and of the way 
in which Toombs, partly by clever ruse, partly by over- 



ROBERT TOOiMBS 193 

mastering argument, succeeded in gaining a hearing and 
more than a hearing. 

Then there was the furious contest over the speaker- 
ship of the House in 1849. Owing to the secession of the 
Southern Whigs, of whom Toombs was one, no majority- 
vote could be secured and Toombs insisted that the 
House, not yet formally organized, could take no ac- 
tion in the matter. Members proceeded to take action. 
Toombs protested. Members shouted him down. He 
would not be shouted down. "You may cry 'order,' 
gentlemen, until the heavens fall ; you cannot take this 
place from me." ^^ " Confusion increased," says the biog- 
rapher. "Members called out to encourage Mr. Toombs, 
and others to put him down. In the midst of this Babel 
he continued to speak, his black hair thrown back, his 
face flushed, and his eyes blazing like suns." 20 He con- 
tinued to speak, and in the end they heard him. It was 
a disgraceful exhibition, said the Northern papers. How- 
ever that may be, one cannot help agreeing with Stephens 
that it was a splendid physical and oratorical achieve- 
ment. 

Even more notable, though the opposition was moral, 
not physical, was Toombs's defense of slavery in Tre- 
mont Temple, Boston, in 1856. The actual audience was 
decorous enough ; but when one thinks of the man and 
the place, of all he represented and of the passionate 
anti-slavery spirit boiling about him, the occasion stands 
out as picturesque, to say the least. 



194 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Not less characteristic, in view of all it meant, is the 
coolness of his testimony concerning the assault made 
by Brooks upon Charles Sumner. Toombs was charged 
with having given Brooks the support of his presence, 
if not more. His answer, not merely to the indignant 
Senate, but to the angry millions of the insulted North, 
is startling in its imperturbable insolence. " As for ren- 
dering Mr. Sumner any assistance, I did not do it. As to 
what was said, some gentlemen present condemned it 
in Mr. Brooks ; I stated to him, or to some of my own 
friends, probably, that I approved it. That is my opin- 
ion." 21 And again: "So far as relates to interfering, or 
giving assistance, he is right. I gave none. I did not put 
in, and should not on that side." 22 

So we come to the break and the great parting. But 
before considering Toombs's activity in this, let us look 
at some of the other elements of his character. For the 
more I study these prominent men of the Civil War pe- 
riod, and indeed the prominent men of any period, the 
more I see that their greatness consists largely in a bal- 
ance of qualities; that is, even when they have one 
quality in marked excess, it is tempered, restrained, and 
modified by a striking makeweight of its opposites. 
Thus, so far, we have seen Toombs as a fighter, riotous, 
rebellious, exulting in the extravagant and often ill-timed 
display of violence, almost a sort of political mounte- 
bank. Yet he was also something far more than this and 
something far different. 



ROBERT TOOMBS 195 

He had a splendid sense of humor. This, as might be 
expected, was often rough, noisy, and boisterous, and did 
him damage; but it had its charm, nevertheless. He 
enjoyed practical jokes, like a great boy, as when, at 
Taylor's suggestion, he switched ofT in the dark a train- 
load of Governor Brown's pet state troops for a fight in 
South Carolina.23 He used a shrewd and savage wit in 
assailing his political adversaries. " You have heard what 
the gentleman says about my coming home to practice 
law. He promises, if elected to Congress, he will not 
leave his seat. I leave you to judge, fellow-citizens, 
whether your interests in Washington will be best pro- 
tected by his continued presence or his occasional ab- 
sence." 24 Some one urged that an antagonist had made 
at least one good appointment. "That may be," an- 
swered Toombs, ** but that was not the reason it was 
made. Bacon was not accused of selling injustice. He 
was eternally damned for selling justice." ^s 

The same shining vivacity of repartee seems to have 
been always ready, in private society as in public gather- 
ings. That keen and passionate tongue must indeed 
have been somewhat dreaded. How bitter is the story of 
the red-headed man ! Toombs was dining with Scott 
and told of a woman who rushed about in a steamer 
explosion, crying, ** Save the red-headed man, save the 
red-headed man." The red-headed man was saved, but 
the woman appeared quite indifferent. " He owes me 
ten thousand dollars," she explained. "General," said 



196 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Toombs, turning to Scott, "the Union owes you ten 
thousand dollars." ^e These outbursts must have done 
Toombs more harm than any one else, as the rodomon- 
tade about calling the roll of his slaves at Bunker Hill 
Monument, or the careless remark, '* We are the gentle- 
men of this country," which gave rise to William Whit- 
more's pamphlet of "The Cavalier Dismounted," or the 
stuffing of an innocent English peer with monstrous tales 
of slaveholding obliquity which were afterwards recorded 
in print to the serious discredit of the narrator.^^ 

Yet there is general agreement that Toombs was one 
of the most brilliant and fascinating of talkers, and Lin- 
ton Stephens, no bad judge, says: "Toombs, or Tom 
Thomas, can, and frequently do, speak more witticisms 
in one night than Rabelais in a lifetime wrote." ^s 

The sunniest, the sweetest, the most winning picture 
of Toombs and his laughter is that admirably given by 
Mrs. Davis. " During the time of the highest excitement 
over the compromise measures, when Mr. Toombs was 
on his feet twenty times a day, he rose at daylight, took 
French lessons with his daughter, and became a good 
French scholar so far as reading the language went. He 
would sit with his hands full of the reporter's notes on his 
speeches for correction, with * Le Medecin Malgre Lui' 
in the other hand, roaring over the play. I said to him, 
* I do not see how you can enjoy that so much.' He an- 
swered, ' Whatever the Almighty lets his geniuses create, 
He makes some one to enjoy : these plays take all the 



ROBERT TOOMBS 197 

soreness out of me.' " ^9 Something to love here, is there 
not? 

And if the man liked laughter, he liked sunshine and 
quiet also, country air, and trees, and flowers. He him- 
self said that "in a very busy and tempestuous life a 
spacious garden with orchards and vineyards, was to him 
an unfailing source of recreation and pleasure." ^° He 
was a practical farmer, too, himself superintended vast 
plantations and had an army of slaves under his charge. 
Stephens, an unimpeachable witness, tells us that " his 
plantation discipline and his treatment of his slaves was 
on a perfect system of reason, justice, and humanity, 
looking as much to the welfare of his dependents as to his 
own pecuniary interests," and that his system and its 
success were wonderful. He would have as overseers 
only men of sobriety, good sense, and humanity.^^ 

In the personal relations of life, also, Toombs seems to 
have been full of charm. One vice he had, the taste for 
alcohol, which in later years overcame him disastrously. 
But even this, throughout his active life, he could and 
did control, when necessary, just as he dropped smoking, 
when he thought it injurious. " I found that smoking 
was ruining my throat and I quit it." 22 In an}^ case ex- 
cessive drinking was but a feature of his strong social 
instinct and his love for the warm contact of his fel- 
lowmen. A true Southerner, he was ready to entertain 
everybody, and protested against the establishment of 
a hotel in his home town. " If a respectable man comes 



198 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

to town, he can stay at my house. If he is n't respect- 
able, we don't want him here at all." ^s How charming 
is the phrase, quoted by Reed, with which he made right 
a momentary awkwardness of unexpected guests at table. 
** O, I do not object to having more friends than room; 
it is usually the other way in this world." ^4 He was sen- 
sitive, emotional, ready to respond to any stimulus of 
affection or pathos. " In speaking of the death of Mr. 
Brooks the other day in the Senate, he broke out in 
weeping and had to stop," writes Stephens.^s The 
warmth and whole-heartedness of his friendship show 
in his words about Crittenden : "The very prince of good 
fellows. I know not his superior on all the earth, in all 
those qualities of head and heart which we must love and 
respect " ; ^^ and Gabriel Toombs's passionate outburst 
reflects something of the feeling of those who had inti- 
mate personal relations with his brother : " While I am 
entirely independent of my brother in the sense the world 
calls independent, no mortal perhaps was ever more de- 
pendent upon another for happiness, than I am upon 
him." " These vital, abounding natures win a devotion 
which paler souls can never know. 

Toombs's religious experience seems to have been 
rather elementary, but sincere. It was amusingly mixed 
with the impetuosity which characterized him in every- 
thing. When his wife was dying, he had some talks on 
serious subjects with the family doctor, who was anxious 
to put him in the right way. "Why, doctor, I am a 



ROBERT TOOMBS 199 

prayerful man. I read the Bible and the Prayer Book 
every day." '* Then why not be baptized, General ? " 
"Baptize me, doctor," was the prompt reply.^s 

Especially attractive is Toombs's affection for his wife 
and the tenderness apparent in the few published frag- 
ments of his letters to her. She was a woman well worth 
his attachment and the perfect marital fidelity, empha- 
sized by all his biographers, is distinctly noticeable in a 
man of such a vigorous and impetuous temperament, 
beset at all times by so many temptations. The frank- 
ness, sincerity, and genuine humility of his nature show 
well in a passage written to Mrs. Toombs, after their 
daughter's death : " God bless you ! Pray for me, that I 
may be a better man in the next year than in all the old 
ones before in my time." ^^ And equally attractive is the 
following expression of gratitude after twenty years of 
marriage : " I know for whatever success in life I may 
have had, whatever evil I may have avoided, or what- 
ever good I may have done, I am indebted to the beau- 
tiful, pure-hearted, true, little girl, who on the i8th of 
November, 1830, came trustingly to my arms, the sweet- 
est and dearest of wives." ^° 

Toombs's excellent balancing traits were by no means 
confined to domestic and social life. We have seen some- 
thing of his headlong fury ; but this was constandy tem- 
pered by shrewdness, by foresight, by restraint and mod- 
eration, when these qualities were clearly called for by 
circumstances. We have already heard Stephens testify- 



200 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

ing that his friend was an admirable man of businesSo 
Adversaries even asserted that " he loaned like a prince 
and collected like a Shylock." " Certain it is that he had 
a remarkable grasp of finance, could unravel a compli- 
cated web of figures with precision and rapidity, and 
seize and clarify the essential features of the most bewil- 
dering business tangle. His letter to the Augusta " Con- 
stitution " (August 12, 1863) is one of the clearest and 
ablest criticisms of the unfortunate Confederate financial 
policy. '*2 

In his profession I have before referred to his immense 
labor in getting at the facts. He was, indeed, quick to 
grasp essential points, but he did not neglect supple- 
menting them by details that were essential also. " In 
reading the report of a case, or an author on any sub- 
ject, he at once seizes upon the real ideas, gleaning the 
vital part from the general verbiage by a process rapid 
as intuition," says Stephens.'^^ And when the material 
was thus once prepared it was presented to the court, 
with vigor and passion, indeed, but also with method 
and thoughtful intelligence. " As a lawyer, I have never 
seen his equal before judge and jury," adds the same ex- 
cellent authority.*^ 

And in law he was as honest as he was able. *' An 
able lawyer and an honest man," writes Mr. Rhodes ; 
" though harsh and intolerant in expression, he was frank 
in purpose." ^^ Good stories are told, illustrating his ab- 
solute probity and determination to keep his hands clean. 



ROBERT TOOMBS 201 

"Yes, you can recover in this suit," he said once to a 
client, " but you ought not to do so. This is a case in 
which law and justice are on opposite sides." And on 
the cHent's insisting, Toombs remarked, " Then you must 
hire some one else to assist you in your damned ras- 
cality." ^^ Again, a lawyer asked him what fee should 
be charged in a certain case. "Well," said Toombs, "I 
should have charged a thousand dollars ; but you ought 
to have five thousand, for you did a great many things 
I could not have done." ^^ And to the end of his life he 
boasted that he had never had a dirty shilling in his 
pocket 

Even in politics we find these curious contradictions 
of moderation and sagacity, often of marked conserva- 
tism, mingling with the ardor of Toombs's general tem- 
perament. It was said of him that he was "violent in 
speech but safe in counsel," and many things prove that 
it was often so, though careful study of his general cor- 
respondence and of his whole career makes it evident 
that the violence went deeper than speech. It would be 
an entire mistake to set him down as a fanatic. Accord- 
ing to his own definition, " a fanatic is one of strong feel- 
ings and weak points." ^^ About him there was nothing 
weak, neither points nor feelings. A fanatic is apt to be 
a mild man worked by an idea into fury. Toombs worked 
fury into the mildest ideas. Yet, when he willed, he could 
be sedate and reasonable. To one who has been startled 
by the vehemence of some particular outburst, the full 



202 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

reading of many of his speeches is a revelation of dig- 
nity, sobriety, and common sense. In numerous instances 
the course he recommended and urged and followed was 
the course of moderation and fairness. And what finer 
warning could be held out before a radical party than his 
conservative reminder: "Truth is often strangled in the 
house and by the hands of its own friends by a struggle 
for that which is impossible to-day but which may easily 
be accomplished to-morrow." ^^ 

Acting in this spirit, he supported Clay and Webster 
in the Compromise measures of 1850, making himself 
extremely obnoxious to the Southern fire-eaters by doing 
so. And I think the importance of this conduct of the 
moderate Whigs cannot be too much insisted upon. 
They roused the wrath of violent partisans in all sections, 
and Webster, at least, earned the hatred and contempt 
of a large number of his constituents. Yet it would be 
easy to maintain that the patriotic action of that group 
of Whig leaders in 1850 saved the Union, not only then, 
but forever. They delayed the conflict for ten years, and 
during those ten years the North had time to accumulate 
the resources which, even so, were barely sufficient to 
enable it to overcome. 

Again in the great Kansas struggle, Toombs's voice 
was given for moderation and prudence. "Senator 
Toombs introduced a bill which, in fairness to the free- 
state settlers, went far beyond the measure that earlier 
in the season had been drawn by Douglas," says Mr. 



ROBERT TOOMBS 203 

Rhodes.^° And elsewhere, " When Toombs said he was 
willing to take the will of the people [of Kansas] in a 
proper and just manner and abide by the result, he was 
sincere. An old Whig, he had the Whig love of the 
Union." " 

Still another curious case of Toombs's moderation is 
the Boston speech above referred to. In going straight 
into the centre of the hostile country and speaking on the 
subject of bitterest contention, slavery, he was indulging 
all his native instincts of combativeness. But once there, 
the speech he made was a model of simple, honest, rea- 
sonable statement of the very best that could be said for 
his fellows and himself. No more persuasive, more manly, 
more human argument for negro servitude was ever 
uttered than Toombs presented in the headquarters of 
abolition on the platform of Tremont Temple in 1856. 

And so, when we come to the last great crisis of all, 
we find Toombs, the revolutionist, the hothead, the fire- 
eater, not doing his best at every opportunity to foment 
sedition and urge an outbreak, but keeping his temper, 
counseling moderation, anxious, to the very end, to cling 
to the old ties, if it were possible. " The temper of the 
North," he writes at one time, " is good, and with kind- 
ness and patronage skilfully adjusted, I think we can 
work out of our present troubles, preserve the Union, and 
disappoint bad men and traitors." ^2 jt is true, he had his 
moments of forgetfulness. " Toombs has just delivered 
a speech of the most abusive and inflammatory character 



204 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

of Judge Douglas. He spoke like a madman and acted 
like a fanatic," writes Stephens.53 Yet, during much of 
the time, his counsel was for restraint, deliberation, and 
endurance as long as endurance was possible. With calm 
foresight he deprecated any contemptuous assertion that 
the people of either section of the Union would be found 
cowardly when the crisis came : " Sir, if there shall ever 
be civil war in this country, when honest men shall set 
about cutting each other's throats, those who are least to 
be depended on in a fight will be the people who set 
them at it." ^^ So late as December, i860, he earned the 
ill will of the violent party in his own State by opposing 
immediate secession. He thought that definite action 
should be fixed for March 4, yet even as to this he adds 
the admirable words : " I certainly would yield that point 
to correct and honest men who were with me in prin- 
ciple, but who were more hopeful of redress from the 
aggressors than I am, especially if any such active meas- 
ures should be taken by the wrongdoers as promised to 
give us redress in the Union." ^^ It is only when he has 
been forced to abandon all hope that he commits him- 
self in final and characteristically decisive language : " I 
will tell you, upon the faith of a true man, that all further 
looking to the North for security for your constitutional 
rights ought to be abandoned. . . . Secession by the 4th 
day of March next should be thundered from the ballot- 
box by the unanimous voice of Georgia on the 2d day of 
January next." ^^ 



ROBERT TOOMBS 205 

The same spirit of provident foresight followed Toombs 
even into the inception of the Confederate policy, when 
all the hotheads were clamoring for fire and steel. Dur- 
ing the discussion in the cabinet over attacking Sumter, 
he spoke vehemently and decidedly in opposition : " Mr. 
President, at this time, it is suicide, murder, and will lose 
us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike 
a hornet's nest which extends from mountains to ocean, 
and legions, now quiet, will swarm out and sting us to 
death. It is unnecessary ; it puts us in the wrong ; it is 
fatal." " 

We might, then, suppose that this arch-rebel, with 
brains tempering his rebellion, who had been so prom- 
inent all through the long political contest, would have 
stood out among the foremost when rebellion took or- 
ganized shape. It is most curious and instructive to 
see how, after all, the dominant instincts of his nature 
prevented this from coming to pass. At first his name 
was mentioned for president of the Confederacy and he 
was thought of by many very seriously as a candidate. 
How far he himself sought the office may be questioned. 
In earlier life he declared, " I have an unaffected repug- 
nance to official station and my interests harmonize with 
my inclination in this respect. Politics with me is but an 
episode in life, not its business." ^^ While, under the 
Confederacy, writing, with entire frankness, to his wife, 
he disclaims all ambition : " I want nothing but the de- 
feat of the public enemy and to retire with you for the 



2o6 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

balance of my life in peace and quiet in any decent cor- 
ner of a free country." ^^ But such disclaimers do not 
count for much. 

Stephens, who liked Toombs and disliked Davis, but 
who was not usually much blinded by his feelings, would 
have preferred to see the former at the head of the 
Government. " Thrift follows him, unthrift Davis. Had 
Toombs been made President — that he was not, was 
only an accident — it is my conviction that the whole 
scheme of action, nay, the results would have been 
changed. . . . The object sought would have been one 
less objectionable to the North. It would, after two years 
of war, have been gained by a special treaty because it 
was strictly constitutional. But Davis, Davis — I know 
not why he was elected president of the Confederacy, 
except that he never succeeded in anything he under- 
took." 60 

In spite of Stephens's weighty authority, I cannot im- 
agine Toombs succeeding at the head of a great govern- 
ment. Impetuous tempers are, indeed, sometimes sobered 
by responsibility ; yet is it possible that one so utterly un- 
trained to obey should ever have been able to command ? 
The president of the Confederacy required a tact in deal- 
ing with difficult situations and difficult characters, a 
tolerance of opinion contrary to his own, a breadth of 
human understanding and sympathy, such as were hardly 
to be found in Lee and Washington, and such as are 
certainly not indicated in Toombs. Those who are in- 



ROBERT TOOMBS 207 

clined to Stephens's view should consider well the little 
scene depicted by the diarist, Jones, as occurring in the 
War Office at Montgomery, when the Confederacy was 
hardly born. Toombs was holding forth to members of 
the cabinet — in a public office, mind you, before the 
gaping clerks. " He was most emphatic in the advocacy 
of his policy, and bold almost to rashness in his denun- 
ciation of the mainly defensive idea. He was opposed to 
all delays as fraught with danger. . . . He was for mak- 
ing the war as terrible as possible from the beginning. 
It was to be no child's play. . . . He denounced with 
bitterness the neglect of the authorities in Virginia. The 
enemy should not have been permitted to cross the Po- 
tomac. . . . Virginia alone could have raised and thrown 
across the Potomac 25,000 men, and driven the Yankees 
beyond the Susquehanna. But she, to avoid responsibility, 
had been telegraphing Davis to come to the rescue ; and 
if he (Toombs) had been in Davis's place, he would have 
taken the responsibility." ^^ This is the tongue which, 
Stephens thinks, could have saved the Confederacy 1 

Well, he did not become president, at any rate, and it 
is to be noted that he characteristically gave his hearty 
support to the election of Davis. What then ? Davis, who 
realized how mighty a power the man had been, was 
ready to offer him a place in the cabinet, the most hon- 
orable, if not the most important, and Toombs became 
secretary of state. He held the position about five months. 
His biographer implies that having put everything in the 



2o8 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

best possible shape, he sought a more active life. This is 
not the general view. Some maintain that he had not the 
system or the practical gifts for managing so great an 
office and they cite his sarcastic remark that he carried 
the records of the State Department under his hat. They 
misjudge him. We have already seen that he was master 
of all the details of handling a great plantation and that 
in these he could be systematic enough. Such of his state 
papers and dispatches as have been printed are admir- 
able in their vigor, brevity, and point. 

The true explanation of his failure is supplied by Mrs. 
Chesnut, in her usual terse and vivid fashion : " Incom- 
patibility of temper. Mr. T. rides too high a horse ; that 
is, for so despotic a person as Jeff Davis." ^2 And Toombs 
himself indicates the same condition of things in a letter 
to his wife referring to a later suggestion that he should 
be secretary of war, a position, by the way, for which 
Stephens considered him peculiarly qualified : " I thought 
I had been very explicit on that point. I would not be 
Mr. Davis's chief clerk. His Secretary of War can never 
be anything else. ... So far as I am concerned, Mr. 
Davis will never give me a chance for personal distinc- 
tion. He thinks I pant for it, poor fool." ^^ As a practical 
illustration of Toombs's respect for government and em- 
powered authority nothing could be more delightful than 
his public dispatch to a quite properly qualified commit- 
tee which required him to give up some part of his 
cotton-planting and substitute the production of food- 



ROBERT TOOMBS 209 

supply. Toombs does not believe in this policy and there- 
fore answers : " I refuse a single hand. My property, as 
long as I live, shall never be subject to the orders of 
those cowardly miscreants, the Committee of Public Safety 
of Randolph County, Georgia, and Eufaula. You may 
rob me in my absence, but you cannot intimidate me." ^^ 

There remained the army. It is true that few civilian 
generals on either side greatly distinguished themselves. 
Yet it seems as if Toombs's fighting temper might have 
come to the front, if any one's could. Did it? A friend 
who knew him well said of him : " He had one ambition, 
and that to the highest office within the Confederacy. 
That could not be gratified. He had another, to be Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the armies. That could not be grati- 
fied. He had no more." ^^ As to the ambitions, who shall 
say ? The fact is that the disappointed statesman plunged 
into a military career with headlong energy and that he 
came out of it pretty much as he had come out of the 
political. Why? 

Certain excellent military qualities he undoubtedly 
had. He was brave, rashly, extravagantly brave. He had 
the gift of inspiring others with his own bravery. History 
will not forget his magnificent defense of the bridge at 
Antietam. Lee's praise of any man is the most enduring 
badge of glory, and Lee said : " General Toombs's small 
command repulsed five different assaults made by greatly 
superior forces, and maintained its position with dis- 
tinguished gallantry." ^s 



2IO CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Also, Toombs was beloved by the men of his brigade 
and took excellent care of them. He looked out for their 
health and comfort in every possible way. ** Whether 
against Johnston, Longstreet, or Hill, the First Bri- 
gade, First Division, was sure of a fearless champion 
in the person of its commander," says the ardent bi- 
ographer.^^ 

The biographer seems to overlook the somewhat ex- 
traordinary sound of commending an officer with so much 
enthusiasm for his bellicose attitude against his own su- 
periors. But here, as everywhere, we meet in Toombs 
the same old defect. He was a splendid individual fighter ; 
but he could not learn that fighting, like everything else, 
to be fruitful and efficient, requires, first of all, subordi- 
nation. He could not learn discipline. 

Thus, one of his sick soldiers was refused hospital on 
account of some technicality. Toombs was told that the 
rules were fixed by General Johnston. He rode right 
up to the general's tent and spoke out in his emphatic 
fashion. *' You have been too rash," protested his own 
surgeon; "you will be arrested." ^^ Johnston did not 
arrest him, because he liked him and was generous him- 
self. But another commander would have done so. 

Again, Toombs lost no opportunity of holding forth, 
even to his men, on the proper conduct of the war. If he 
disapproved of the action of his superiors, he did not 
hesitate to say so, and often without very thorough 
knowledge of what his superiors were aiming at. He 



ROBERT TOOMBS 211 

hated West Point because it meant discipline and train- 
ing. Thus he writes of Joseph E. Johnston : " I never 
knew as incompetent [an] executive officer. As he has 
been to West Point, tho, I suppose he knows everything 
about it." ^3 And again : "Johnston is a poor devil, small, 
arbitrary, and inefficient. Like Walker, he undertakes to 
do everything from a mere fondness for power and does 
nothing well. He harasses and obstructs but cannot 
govern the army." ^° Toombs hated Davis, because Davis 
supported West Point. " Davis and his janissaries [the 
regular army] conspire for the destruction of all who 
will not bend to them, and avail themselves of the 
public danger to aid them in their selfish and infamous 
schemes."''^ When the general rejoined his regiment 
after arrest, he is said to have cried out, ** Go it, boys ! I 
am with you again. Jeff Davis can make a general, but 
it takes God Almighty to make a soldier." ^2 Comment 
is needless. 

Nor did he hesitate at direct disobedience when it 
suited him. The attack at Golding's farm, during the 
Seven Days' battles, made against Lee's explicit orders, 
is hardly in point, because Toombs claimed to have in- 
structions from his immediate superior. But in the cam- 
paign of Second Bull Run Toombs's brigade was ordered 
by Longstreet to guard a certain ford. Longstreet's de- 
licious, patronizing account of the affair should be read 
in full " and compared with Toombs's considerably dif- 
fering version.^^ But from both it is evident that Toombs 



212 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

withdrew the picket without orders, and, however ex- 
cellent his motives, it was quite natural that Longstreet 
should put him under arrest, which he did. 

Moreover, ready as Toombs was to criticize others, he 
had no notion of being criticized himself. D. H. Hill, not 
noted for his soft tongue, rode up in the middle of an 
action, and not understanding the circumstances, blamed 
Toombs for the conduct of his troops. " You are always 
crying out, fight, fight," said Hill, in substance ; " why 
don't you fight?" Toombs resented this bitterly and 
would have insisted on a duel if Hill would have met 
him.^5 

It is hardly necessary to follow Toombs the soldier any 
further. Many fine things are told of him, notably his 
whole-hearted submission when taken back to duty after 
the arrest by Longstreet. ^^ Longstreet liked him, as, in- 
deed, did every one, and said of him admiringly that 
he needed only discipline to make him a great general. 
Perhaps he needed some other things ; but discipline was 
the crying need of his whole life, and it is pathetic to see 
such exceptional gifts falling, falling by rapid stages from 
the candidacy for president to a petty and insignificant 
position in the Georgia militia. Mrs. Chesnut sums up 
his career and the whole tone of his correspondence un- 
der the Confederacy with splendid vividness, if perhaps 
a little too vividly : " Toombs is ready for another revo- 
lution and curses freely every Confederate from the 
President to a horseboy. He thinks there is a conspiracy 



ROBERT TOOMBS 213 

against him in the army. Why ? Heavens and earth I 
Why?"" 

The Confederacy falls and Toombs falls with it, what 
distance he has left to fall. In his own opinion, at any 
rate, the North was thirsting for his blood, and the melo- 
dramatic incidents of his escape from capture must have 
afforded him infinite pleasure ; flights, disguises, con- 
cealments, thrilling hints of treachery, also the protection 
of lovely and intellectual young women. He was " a 
Chesterfield with ladies," says his biographer. " The gen- 
eral would walk to and fro along the shaded walks and 
pour forth, in his matchless way, the secret history of the 
ruin of the Confederate hopes." ^^ How I should like to 
have heard him ! 

And now comes the last curiosity in this extraordinary 
career. Before the war, in times of organized society, the 
man had stood forth a splendid rebel. Then, when re- 
bellion became the fashion and had spread to every- 
body about him, he sank into complete insignificance. 
Comparative peace was restored, comparative organiza- 
tion ; and immediately, as a rebel and a fighter, he came 
once more to the front. After he returned from his long 
exile in Europe, he struck in at once with vehement 
battle against all the sins and errors of carpetbag recon- 
struction. Heaven knows it was a fine opportunity ! 
How he must have luxuriated in the tempest of epithets 
which he hurled against the dominant party that was 
over-riding him and his fellows : " Its tyranny, its cor- 



214 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

ruption, its treachery to the Caucasian race, its patron- 
age of vice, of fraud, of crime and criminals." ^^ What 
hearty wealth of honest egotism rings in his cry of dis- 
gust at the things that were going on about him : " I am 
sorry I have got so much sense. I see into the tricks of 
these public men too quickly. When God Almighty 
moves me from the earth, he will take away a heap of 
experience. I expect when a man gets to be seventy he 
ought to go, for he knows too much for other people's 
convenience." s° But the best thing in the later corre- 
spondence, as illustrating the value of a man's comment 
on his own character, is the following [italics mine] : " I 
had hoped to be there myself, but the arbitration in the 
Whitfield case is protracted by Hill and his villains with 
the hope of annoying me out, but you know I generally 
take a through ticket. The thing is unbearable except by 
a fnan of my philosophy y^^ 

In this last phase, again, as so frequently before, we 
should note the makeweight of sound common sense and 
real constructive intelligence. No one's brain was more 
helpful than Toombs's in framing the new constitution 
of Georgia. And in opposing things in general, he op- 
posed some particular things for which wise men can 
never commend him too much. He opposed the popular 
election of judges, and when told that it worked well 
where it had been tried, answered, with the classical col- 
loquialism he loved to use : " It is easy to take the road 
to hell, but few people ever return from it." ^2 He op- 



ROBERT TOOMBS 215 

posed the too hasty allotment of privileges and powers 
to railroads and corporations. His words would find 
many to-day to echo them, few to improve them. ** What 
do I see before me ? The grave. What beyond that ? 
Starving millions of our posterity, that I have robbed by 
my action here, in giving them over to the keeping of 
these corporations. The right to control these railroads 
belongs to the State, to the people, and as long as I re- 
present the people, I will not relinquish it, so help me 
God I "S3 

A fighter, you see, so long as breath was in him, a 
rampant individualist, a champion of all the wordy ideals 
of the eighteenth century, the embodiment of passionate 
will, which would not be over-persuaded or over-ridden, 
or broken down. Although he nominally accepted Chris- 
tianity and even declared on his deathbed that he " had 
not a resentment. I would not pang a heart," ^^ yet he 
remained proud, haughty, self-confident to the very end. 
" Yes, I know I am fast passing away. Life's fitful fever 
will soon be over. I would not blot out a single act of 
my life." ^^ The United States Government had con- 
quered him, subdued him, constrained him. It governed 
Georgia and he was a Georgian. But he never forgave. 
"Pardon ?" he said, when they asked him to sue for am- 
nesty ; " Pardon for what? I have not pardoned you all 
yet." s^ And he declared that he would die as he had 
lived, "an unpardoned, unreconstructed, unrepentant 
rebel."" 



2i6 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Together with not a few other of the admirable quali- 
ties of Milton's Satan, he had in a high degree the one 
quality which we respect most in that heroic, if some- 
what unregenerate, type of Promethean rebellion, — 

" The courage never to submit or yield, 
And what is else not to be overcome." 



VIII 

Raphael Semmes 



CHRONOLOGY 

Born Charles County, Maryland, September 27, 1809. 

Midshipman, United States Navy, 1826. 

Admitted to the bar, 1834. 

Lieutenant, 1837. 

Married, 1837, Annie E. Spencer, of Cincinnati. 

Both land and sea service in Mexican War. 

Commander, 1855. 

Secretary Lighthouse Board, 1858-61. 

Commanded Sumter, 1 861. 

Commanded Alabama from August, 1862, to June, 1864. 

Defeated by Winslow in the Kearsarge, June 19, 1864. 

Confederate Rear Admiral, 1864. 

Surrenders with Johnston, May i, 1865. 

Arrested, 1865, but released under amnesty. 

Law and journalism till death, August 30, 1877. 




RAPHAEL SEMMES 



VIII 

RAPHAEL SEMMES 

It is not likely that the romance of the one hundred and 
thirty volumes of Civil War Records will ever be writ- 
ten ; yet the diligent searcher of those records finds 
many picturesque points to relieve his tedious hours. 
For instance, there is the matter of proper names. The 
novelist who invented ** Philip St. George Cocke " as a 
military hero would be laughed at for excess of fancy. 
Yet the Confederates rejoiced in such a general, who was 
killed early and is said to have been a good fighter. At 
any rate, he wrote up to his name in almost unbelievable 
fashion. He is not to be confused with his feebler Union 
duplicate — I mean feebler as regards nomenclature — 
Philip St. George Cooke. 

Then there is Captain Coward, a brave and able sol- 
dier, who has served his state efficiently both during the 
war and since. Still with that name would you not have 
chosen to be a preacher, or a plumber, or to follow any 
respectable profession of peace, rather than to inflict such 
a military hicus e non lucendo on a mocking world ? And 
the parents of this unfortunate, when they had the whole 
alphabet to choose from, preferred to smite their offspring 
with the initial ** A.," perhaps hoping, affectionately but 



220 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

mistakenly, that Alexander, or Ajax, or Achilles, would 
suffice to overcome the patronymic blight. 

All which is but a prelude to the introduction of 
Raphael Semmes. Is not the name a jewel in itself? In 
Latin countries Raphael may be a fairly common appel- 
lation ; but we Saxons are usually familiar with only 
three instances of it, two artists and an archangel. Ele- 
ments of both these characters appear in the subject be- 
fore us, but I think the artist predominated and the other 
irresistibly suggests Lamb's description of Coleridge, 
"an archangel — a little damaged." 

Really, for a pirate, could anything be finer than 
"Raphael Semmes" ? And it is always as a pirate that 
I shuddered at the commander of the Alabama in my boy- 
hood dreams. I thought of him as a joyous freebooter, 
a Kidd, or a Red Rover, or a Cleveland, skimming the 
blue main like a bird of prey, eager to plunder and de- 
stroy, young, vigorous, splendidly bloodthirsty, gay in 
lace and gold, perhaps with the long locks, which, Plu- 
tarch assures us, make lovers more lovely and pirates 
more terrible. I cherished this vision even while I knew 
only vaguely of a certain Semmes. When better knowl- 
edge added " Raphael," my dream became complete. 

Now it must go with the other dreams of boyhood ; 
for better knowledge still assures me that the man was 
not a pirate at all. I have his own word for this — or 
words, some hundred and fifty thousand of them. I have 
also most touching and impressive narratives of his 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 221 

crew, who were of so sympathetic a disposition that they 
were moved by their first captive's tears to the point of 
collecting a purse for him. 1 I do not understand that 
they continued this habit ; but to the very end I have no 
doubt the hard plight of an orphan would have worked 
upon their feelings as volcanically as upon the pirates of 
Gilbert and Sullivan. 

Perhaps more convincing than such somewhat ex parte 
evidence, and, indeed, conclusive, are the calm state- 
ments of Union authorities. Through the war " pirates " 
was the universal cry of the Northern Government and 
press. But Professor Soley, as competent as any one to 
give an opinion, declares that, " Neither the privateers, 
like the Petrel and the Savannah, nor the commissioned 
cruisers, like the Alabama and the Florida, were guilty 
of any practices which, as against their enemies, were 
contrary to the laws of war." 2 While Robert A. BoUes, 
legal adviser of the Navy Department, writing in the 
" Atlantic Monthly," shortly after the war, to explain 
why Semmes was not prosecuted, asserts that he was 
"entitled to all of the customary cheats, falsehoods, 
snares, decoys, false pretences, and swindles of civilized 
and Christian warfare," and that "the records of the 
United States Navy Department effectually silence all 
right to complain of Semmes for having imitated our 
example in obedience to orders from the Secretary of 
the Confederate Navy."^ 

It is impossible to imagine anything more satisfactory 



222 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

than this, coming from such a source, and the talk of 
" pirates " seems to be forever disposed of. Nevertheless, 
there is one authority on the other side, of such weight 
and significance that I cannot altogether pass him by. 
This authority — American — is, indeed, speaking of pri- 
vateers in the Mexican War ; but the methods and prac- 
tices animadverted upon are so closely akin to those of 
the Alabama that that vessel could hardly have escaped 
being included in the condemnation, in spite of her claim 
to be a duly authorized Confederate cruiser. 

Our authority, then, speaks thus of the composition 
of crews. " It is necessary that at least a majority of the 
officers and crew of each vessel should be citizens ; not 
citizens made ad hoc, in fraud of the law, but bo7ia fide 
citizens ; and any vessel which might have attempted to 
cruise under a letter of marque and reprisal, without this 
essential requisite, would have become, from that mo- 
ment, a pirate." ^ 

Again, this writer expresses himself in the severest 
terms as to commerce-destroying generally. "Indeed, 
there is a growing disposition among civilized nations, 
to put an end to this disreputable mode of warfare under 
any circumstances. It had its origin in remote and bar- 
barous ages, and has for its object rather the plunder of 
the bandit than honorable warfare. . . . From the na- 
ture of the material of which the crews of these vessels 
are composed — the adventurous and desperate of all 
nations — the shortness of their cruises, and the demor- 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 223 

alizing pursuit in which they are engaged, it is next to 
impossible that any discipline can be established or 
maintained among them. In short, they are little better 
than licensed pirates ; and it behooves all civilized na- 
tions, and especially nations who, like ourselves, are ex- 
tensively engaged in foreign commerce, to suppress the 
practice altogether." ^ 

By this time, I imagine that the indignant Southern 
reader is inquiring what twopenny authority I am thus 
setting up against the best legal judgment of the North 
itself. I answer, with hilarious satisfaction, no less an 
authority than Captain Raphael Semmes, who, in dis- 
cussing the question generally with regard to Mexico, 
had little forethought of himself as a commissioned offi- 
cer of the Confederate States. 

No doubt he would have had a luxury of excuses and 
explanations, many of them reasonable. Still, I think we 
have here a delightful illustration of the diflference be- 
tween abstract theories and concrete applications, and if 
Seward and Welles could have got hold of this passage, 
they would have hailed it with infinite glee, as indeed 
the utterance of a Daniel come to judgment. 

Pirate or not, the career of the Sumter, and far more 
that of the Alabama, have a flavor of desperate adven- 
ture about them, which does not lack fascination for 
lovers of romance. ** Engaged in acts somewhat sug- 
gesting the pranks of the buccaneers," is the modest 
comment of Second Lieutenant Sinclair, and the facts 



224 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

amply bear him out. The Alabama was built by stealth 
in England, sailed from Liverpool under the British flag, 
and was commissioned practically on the high seas. Her 
crew were largely ruffians, sharked up from the worst 
corners of British seaports, requiring at all times a watch- 
ful eye and a heavy hand. The voyage was everywhere, 
now in Atlantic fog, now in Indian sunshine, battles 
wuth tropic storms, owl-flittings in murky twilight. Some- 
times there would come a few days' repose in dubiously 
neutral ports. The captain would slip on shore for a 
touch of firm land, the sound of a woman's voice, per- 
haps a long ride over snowy mountains or through 
strange forests. On his return he would find half his 
crew drunk, the United States consul stirring up all 
sorts of trouble, and an order to depart at once, half- 
coaled and half-provisioned. Or, as at Cape Town, among 
the friendly English, he would be nearly sufTocated with 
intrusive popularity. 

Then it was up anchor and away, long months at sea, 
incessant watchfulness. But the monotony was broken 
almost daily by fierce swoops upon Northern merchant- 
men, which were stopped, examined, seized, their crews 
taken aboard the Alabama, the vessels themselves — 
since there were no Confederate ports to send them to — 
usually burned with all their cargo, serving sometimes as 
a decoy to lure yet other victims within the reach of the 
greedy aggressor. Any passengers on board the prizes 
were treated as were the crews, detained on the Alabama 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 225 

only until some convenient means was found of getting 
rid of them. Now and then among these were ladies, 
who at first regarded their captors with exaggerated 
fears. But the young officers managed to overcome this 
in most cases and the lieutenant who boarded one large 
steamer returned with his coat quite bare of buttons 
which had been cut off for mementoes. Assuredly this 
was playing the pranks of the buccaneers with a certain 
gayety. 

The sordid side of such work is obvious enough. For 
a commissioned war-vessel to sail about the world, do- 
ing no fighting, but simply capturing and destroying 
unarmed merchantmen, seems in itself neither very use- 
ful, very creditable, nor very amusing. As to the useful- 
ness, however, the Alabama's depredations probably did 
as much as anything to develop the peace spirit among 
the merchants of the North, and Semmes was no doubt 
right in thinking that he seriously diminished the pres- 
sure of the blockade by drawing so much attention to 
himself. And he is further right in asserting, as to dis- 
credit, that what damage he did to property and injury 
to persons is not to be named with the damage and in- 
jury done by Sherman without one whit more military 
excuse. 

As to amusement, that is, excitement, the course of the 
Alabama supplied enough of it. Not to speak of winds 
and storms, to which she was incessantly exposed in her 
practically unbroken cruise of two years, there was the 



226 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

ever-present necessity of avoiding the Union men-of-war, 
a fleet of which were on the lookout, flying close upon 
her traces in every quarter of the globe. With the North- 
ern press and the suffering merchants everywhere calling 
for redoubled vigilance and an immense reward of glory 
awaiting the destroyer of the dreaded destroyer, every 
Union officer was most keenly alert. For instance, it is 
interesting to find Admiral Mahan, as a young midship- 
man, begging the Navy Department to give him a ship 
that he may pursue Semmes, then in command of his 
first vessel, the Sumter : " Suppose it fails, what is lost? 
A useless ship, a midshipman, and a hundred men. If it 
succeeds, apart from the importance of the capture, look 
at the prestige such an affair would give the service." * 

To evade hostility like this meant excitement enough. 
Yet for three years, in his two ships, Semmes did it, 
fighting only once with an inferior vessel, the Hatteras, 
which he sank. When at last, on the 19th of June, 1864, 
in the English Channel, he met the Kearsarge on nearly 
equal terms, it was by his own choice, not by compul- 
sion, and on the whole, his ship made a good and cred- 
itable ending, though Professor Soley is no doubt right 
in thinking that the defeat was owing rather to inferior 
training and marksmanship on the Alabama than to the 
chain protection of the Union vessel of which the Con- 
federates made so much. 

But what we are seeking is a closer knowledge of 
Semmes himself. To accord with his firefly craft and 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 227 

with "pranks resembling those of the buccaneers" you 
no doubt imagine a gay young adventurer, handsome, 
gold-laced, laughing, swearing, singing, in short, the 
romantic freebooter of my dreams above mentioned. 

The real Semmes was nothing of the sort. To begin 
with, at the outbreak of the war he was an elderly man. 
Born in 1809, he took his early training in the United 
States Navy, then returned to civil life and practiced 
law, then went into the Mexican War, and served all 
through it with credit and distinction, disappearing after- 
ward in the routine of government service. 
-•, Seen as others saw him in i860, he was anything but 
"a gallant adventurer. He was not handsome, he was not 
winning, he was not magnetic. In fact, he gave rather 
the impression of a grave and reverend professional man 
than of a dashing captain, and some of his prisoners at 
first sight mistook him for a parson, an illusion quickly 
dispelled by a habit of marine phraseology which would 
not have been pleasing to Lee or Jackson. " Lean, sal- 
low, and nervous, much less like a mariner than a sea- 
lawyer," says Rideing of him, after the war.^ He was 
cold, quiet, and reserved, talked little with his officers, 
depended little on their advice, but made his own de- 
cisions and took all the responsibility for them. When 
the approach of the great final conflict aroused him suf- 
ficiently to make him ask Lieutenant Sinclair how he 
thought it would turn out, the lieutenant was quite over- 
come : " I was surprised that he should care to have my 



228 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

opinion, or that of any one else ; for he rarely addressed 
any of us off duty, and never asked the advice or opinion 
of his subordinates on weighty matters." » 

I do not know what better testimony to respectability, 
sanity, and conservatism could be had than that of Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, and Stephens speaks of Semmes as 
follows : ** For some years before secession he was at the 
head of the Lighthouse Board in Washington. He re- 
signed as soon as Alabama seceded, though he agreed 
with me thoroughly in my position on that question, as 
his letters to me show. He was a Douglas man, and you 
need not therefore be surprised when I tell you that I 
considered him a very sensible, intelligent, and gallant 
man. I aided him in getting an honorable position in 
our navy, and in getting him afloat as soon as possible, 
which he greatly desired." ^ 

Fortunately, however, we are not obliged to depend 
on any external testimony. We have plenty of writing of 
the man's own which throws wide light upon his soul. 
He kept a careful log-book of both his cruises. This was 
used as a basis for the book written about him, called, 
" Log of the Sumter and Alabama," and again, by him- 
self, in his huge " Memoir of Service Afloat during the 
War Between the States." But the original, as printed in 
the " Official Records," is far more valuable than the 
later studied and literary narratives. 

To begin with, one cannot help being impressed with 
his fine intelligence. He had a mind constantly working, 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 229 

and trained to work with ease, assurance, and dispatch. 
This is perhaps most striking in his immense legal in- 
genuity. His position brought him daily into contact with 
the nicest and most puzzling international questions, both 
of law and morals, from the disposition of his prizes to 
the disposition of himself, when he surrendered his ves- 
sel, let her sink under his feet, and after he was picked 
out of the water by the English yacht, Deerhound, be- 
took himself to England and safety, instead of to the 
Kearsarge and a Northern prison. On all these points he 
is inexhaustible in legal lore, fertile in persuasive argu- 
ment, and most apt and energetic in making every pos- 
sible suggestion tell. 

Nor would I intimate that in all this abundant dis- 
cussion he is not sincere, or any less so than the average 
lawyer. He is, indeed, quick to take advantage of every 
quibble. But the long legal cases in regard to many of 
his captures recorded in his log-book — that is, mainly 
for his own eye — seem to me to indicate a mind much 
open to conscientious scruples and a feeling that his 
elaborate argument must convince himself as well as 
others. 

More attractive evidence of Semmes's intellectual 
power than that furnished by his legal pyrotechnics is 
his early book about the Mexican War. This is as intel- 
ligent a narrative of travel as can readily be found. 
There is not only the wide-open eye of the sympathetic 
observer; but the comments on the social life of the 



230 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

people, on their industries, their manners, their morals, 
their government, and their religion, are sober, fruitful, 
and suggestive, and may be read to-day with perhaps 
even more profit than fifty years ago. 

Still, a pirate might be intelligent. Let us take other 
aspects of Semmes's character. How did he treat his 
prisoners, of whom, first and last, there must have been 
hundreds? His own account and that of his officers is, of 
course, highly favorable. He admits that at first, as a 
measure of retaliation for Union treatment of captured 
" pirates," he was unnecessarily rigid in the use of irons ; 
but in the main he asserts that captives were made as 
comfortable as circumstances permitted and he insists 
especially that at no time was there any pillaging of pri- 
vate personal property. " We may as well state here," 
writes Lieutenant Sinclair, " that all our prisoners were 
housed on deck from necessity, the berth-deck being 
crowded by our own men. But we made them as com- 
fortable as we could under the circumstances, spread 
awnings and tarpaulins over them in stormy weather, and 
in every way possible provided for their comfort. They 
were allowed full rations (less the spirit part) and their 
own cooks had the range of the galley in preparing 
their food to their taste. Indeed, when it is considered 
that our men had watch to keep and they none, they were 
better ofT for comfort than ourselves." i° This, of course, 
refers only to the men. When women were brought on 
board, they were given the officers' own staterooms. 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 231 

Both Semmes and his lieutenants take great pride in 
the humane treatment of those on board the large steam- 
ship, Ariel. When the ship was taken, the plan was to 
burn her and land the prisoners at Kingston. There was 
fever in Kingston, however ; so, rather than expose so 
many persons to danger of infection, the vessel was 
allowed to go on her way under bond. Semmes's re- 
mark on this in his log (not in his published narrative) 
savors delightfully of the charity of Glossin in "Guy 
Mannering." " It would have been inhuman to put ashore, 
even if permitted (and I greatly doubted on this point), 
so large a number of persons, many of whom were 
women and children, to become victims, perhaps, to the 
pestilence." ^^ 

-rsr And what do the prisoners themselves say about it? 
Naturally their view was somewhat different. Complaints 
appear of rough usage, chiefly of the employment of 
irons, which was at times manifestly necessary, where the 
number of captives was so large., " The manner of the 
master of the steamer was overbearing and insolent in 
the extreme," writes one victim; "and it was at the 
great risk of the personal safety, if not of the life, of the 
deponent, that he so strenuously insisted upon his ship 
and cargo being released." ^2 But in general there is a 
remarkable — all the more so because grudging — agree- 
ment that things were conducted peaceably and civilly 
and that no personal violence was used in any case. 
Here again the testimony of Bolles, who had made a 



232 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

thorough and hostile investigation, is conclusive. " In 
no one single solitary instance was there furnished a 
particle of proof that 'the pirate Semmes,' as many of 
my correspondents called him, had ever maltreated his 
captives, or subjected them to needless and unavoidable 
deprivation." ^^ 

It may be suggested that this line of conduct was 
dictated rather by policy than by kindness of heart. 
What, then, was Semmes's treatment of his crew? On 
this point, also, the testimony is conflicting. I have said 
that they were necessarily a rough lot. Semmes puts it 
more strongly: "The fact is, I have a precious set of 
rascals on board — faithless in the matter of abiding by 
their contracts, liars, thieves, and drunkards." ^^ To 
have managed such a company, in sole authority, for 
two years, over the vast solitudes of ocean, is in itself 
strong testimony to executive ability and force of char- 
acter. It is evident that stern and constant severity was 
needed and Semmes employed it, as he himself admits. 
I do not find any proof that the severity was excessive. 
In cases of open and extreme disorder punishment was 
awarded by formal court martial, and not suddenly, nor 
in anger. The harshest instance seems to have been that 
of the captured deserter Forrest, ^^ who, after being sev- 
eral times "spread-eagled" in strenuous fashion, was 
put ashore in irons on a desert coast, the crew, without 
the knowledge of the captain, subscribing a purse which 
they hoped would enable him to get off, as it did. But 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 233 

the officers agree that Forrest's rascality stood out, even 
in that choice collection. 

It is as to the result of this severity in discipline that 
there is a most interesting disagreement of witnesses. 
Semmes himself declares that it accomplished its ob- 
ject. "Many of my fellows, no doubt, thought they 
were shipping in a sort of privateer, where they would 
have a jolly good time and plenty of license. They have 
been wofully disappointed, for I have jerked them down 
with a strong hand, and now have a well-disciplined 
ship of war." ^^ His officers confirm his statement ener- 
getically. Lieutenant Sinclair writes : " No better proof 
of the judicial methods of discipline outlined by Semmes 
could be submitted, than that under them, though en- 
gaged in acts somewhat suggesting the pranks of the 
buccaneers, our crew were as well held in hand as though 
serving on an English man-of-war in times of perfect 
peace, and at the same time in a state of perfect content- 
ment." 17 

With this beatific vision it is really amusing to 
compare the assertions of some of the prisoners on the 
Alabama, who inspected conditions with a curious, though 
perhaps a somewhat malignant eye. " All the men for- 
ward are English and Irish," says one observer, " no 
Americans. The officers are Southerners, and, with the 
exception of the captain and first lieutenant, seem igno- 
rant of their duties. The discipline on board was not very 
good, though the men seemed to be good seamen. They 



234 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

were over an hour setting the two topgallant sails. The 
men appeared to be dissatisfied." ^^ And if it be urged 
that this was in September, 1862, before conditions were 
comfortably adjusted, we can turn to a still more severe 
account given by a reliable witness, in November, 1863, 
when the Alabama had run more than half of her troubled 
course. "Crew much dissatisfied, no prize money, no 
liberty, and see no prospect of getting any. Discipline 
very slack, steamer dirty, rigging slovenly. Semmes 
sometimes punishes, but is afraid to push too hard. . . . 
Crew do things for which would be shot on board 
American man-of-war ; for instance, saw one of crew 
strike a master's mate ; crew insolent to petty officers ; 
was told by at least two thirds of them that they would 
desert on the first opportunity. . . . While on board saw 
drill only once, and that at pivot guns, very badly done ; 
men ill-disciplined and were forced to it ; lots of curs- 
ing." i9 

In such surroundings it might be vain to look for per- 
sonal attachment. Perhaps even Jackson or Stuart would 
have been unable to inspire any. Still, in his book — the 
passage does not occur in his log — Semmes speaks of 
both officers and crew with what appears to be real affec- 
tion. ** When men have been drenched and wind-beaten 
in the same storm, . . . there is a feeling of brotherhood 
that springs up between them, that it is difficult for a 
landsman to conceive." 20 His sailors certainly had im- 
mense confidence in him, as well they might, and it is said 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 235 

that after the loss of the Alabama, many of them came and 
begged him to procure another ship. I do not find re- 
lated of him, however, any incident so touching as that 
told by his first officer. Lieutenant Kell, — too simple and 
too human to have been invented, by Kell, at any rate, — 
of the dying seaman, who, as his superior was leaving 
the Alabama, then'about to sink, " caught my hand and 
kissed it with such reverence and loyalty — the look, the 
act, lingers in my memory still." 21 Surely they were not 
all infernal rascals on board that pirate. 

If we look at Semmes, for a moment, in other concerns 
of life besides the official, we shall find much that is at- 
tractive to complete the picture of him. 

So far from having anything of the typical pirate's 
mercurial affections, he seems to have been a man of 
peculiarly domestic habit, much attached to his wife and 
to his children. The temporary presence of children and 
their mothers on the Alabama is referred to in his book 
, with great feeling: "When I would turn over in my cot, 
in the morning, for another nap, in that dim conscious- 
ness which precedes awakening, I would listen, in dreamy 
mood, to the sweet voices over my head, . . . and giving 
free wing to fancy, I would be clasping again the absent 
dear ones to my heart." 22 Less literary, and therefore 
even more convincing, are the little touches of tender- 
ness interspersed among the scientific observations and 
political discussion of the log-book. " The governor sent 
me off a fine turkey, and some fruit, and his lady a bou- 



236 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

quet of roses. The roses were very sweet, and made me 
homesick for a while." ^3 Again, "I am quite homesick 
this quiet Sunday morning. I am two long, long years 
and more absent from my family, and there are no signs 
of an abatement of the war." 24 

The same sensibility that shows in this home feeling 
manifests itself in other ways. Semmes was not only a 
wide reader in his profession and in lines connected with 
it, but he loved literature proper, read much poetry and 
quotes it often. He was singularly sensitive to beauty in 
any form. 

Above all, his diary reads almost like that of a natural- 
ist — Darwin or Bates — in its singularly close, intelligent, 
and affectionate observation of nature. Roving all over 
the tropic world of land and water, at a time when such 
study was less common than now, he kept his eyes open 
for both exceptional and ordinary natural phenomena. 
He had the keenest interest in the working of tides, 
storms, and currents, and not only records minutely 
all the empirical detail of such matters, but goes into 
elaborate discussion of the causes of them, illustrat- 
ing with plans and diagrams which quaintly diversify 
the cargo-lists of Yankee schooners and the recital of 
attempts to blarney pompous officials of Portugal and 
Spain. 

Nor is the appreciation of the charm of nature less 
than the sense of its scientific interest. Every opportu- 
nity of landing is seized as giving the tired sea-wanderer 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 237 

a chance to satisfy his love of the soil, and he paints de- 
lightful pictures of tropic scenes and things and people. 
Here again the more elaborate specimens are to be found 
in the books, especially in the earlier one on Mexico ; 
but I prefer the piquant freshness of little touches jotted 
down, under the immediate impression, in the diary of 
the day. How graceful, for instance, is this description 
of Fernando de Noronha : *' The island in the season at 
which we visited it was a gem of picturesque beauty, ex- 
ceedingly broken and diversified with dells and rocks and 
small streams, etc. It was the middle of the rainy season. 
The little mountain paths as we returned became little 
brooks, that hummed and purled on their rapid course." ^s 
Or this, again, of Martinique : "In the afternoon strolled 
on the heights in the rear of the town, and was charmed 
with the picturesque scenery on every hand. The little 
valleys and nooks in which nestle the country houses are 
perfect pictures, and the abrupt and broken country pre- 
sents delightful changes at every turn." 26 While the 
following passage adds a personal note which is as at- 
tractive as it is evidently sincere : ** Visited the Savan- 
nah [Fort St. Louis] to hear the music, which is given 
every Sunday evening. It was a gay and beautiful scene, 
the moon, the shade trees, the statue of Josephine, the 
throng of well-dressed men and women, the large band 
and the fine music, the ripple of the sea, and last, though 
not least, the katydids, so fraught with memories of 
home, dear home ! " 27 



238 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

^^ And if Semmes was emotional and sensitive, he was 
also conscientious, high-principled, and genuinely re- 
ligious. Aide-toi et Dieu t'aidera, "God helps those who 
help themselves," was the delightful motto of the Ala- 
bama, and past question her commander trusted in God 
as well as in his own right arm. He inherited the Catho- 
lic faith and persisted in it with evidently sincere as well 
as intelligent devotion. His argument, in his book on 
Mexico, for the value to humanity of a liturgical service 
is as clear and cogent as his criticism of the excessive 
influence of an ignorant clergy in Mexican life. The 
touches of personal religion in his diary are absolutely 
free from pretentiousness and are very winning in their 
simplicity. Sometimes, indeed, there is a naive mixture 
of his worldly occupations with his spiritual zeal : " I 
have thus spent a busy day, without having time even 
to read a chapter in the Bible, and all for nothing — one 
Dutchman and two Englishmen." ^s But elsewhere the 
fervent outpouring of pious ejaculation is quite un- 
mingled with any taint of sordid cares. " My life has been 
one of great vicissitude, but not of calamity or great 
suffering, and I have reason to be thankful to a kind 
Providence for the many favors I have received. I have 
enjoyed life to a reasonable extent, and I trust I shall have 
fortitude to meet with Christian calmness any fate that 
may be in store for me, and to undergo the great change, 
which awaits us all, with composure and a firm reliance 
upon the justice and goodness of God." ^9 I think you 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 239 

must be asking now, with some astonishment, where is 
that pirate? 

The practical Christian virtues, too, seem to be pres- 
ent, in desire at least, as well as Christian aspiration. 
Some of Semmes's reported utterances might make one 
think he lacked patience. He thinks so himself: "I am 
not discouraged, but I have had an excellent opportu- 
nity to practice the Christian virtue of patience, which 
virtue, I think, I am a little deficient in." ^o Humility, 
also, he endeavors to cultivate, when winds and seas 
tempt an angry criticism of the order of nature. " One of 
the most temper-trying of the contretemps of a seaman's 
life is, when your position is such as to render your lati- 
tude very important to you, to have a squall come up, 
just before it is time to look out for the sun, and to rain 
and obscure everything until it is a very [few] minutes 
too late for you, and then to have the sun shine out 
brightly, as if in mockery of your bafifled desire. Such 
was the case to-day, this being the second day that we 
are without an observation for latitude. But I endeavor 
to profit by these trials, as they teach me a lesson of 
humility. What is man, that the sun should shine for 
him ? And then, in our stupidity, we fail to see things in 
their true light ; all the occurrences of nature, being in 
obedience to wise laws, must of course, be the best." ^i 

With the insight into Semmes's inner life and private 
character thus acquired we are better able to appreciate 
the really lofty motives that animated him in his public 



240 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

service. His perfect courage, his entire determination and 
persistence in effort, are beyond dispute. Read the ac- 
counts of the calmness and self-sacrifice with which, in 
spite of a painful wound, he managed every detail of his 
last combat. The only aspersion upon him here is that 
he did not give himself up as a prisoner after being 
rescued by the Deerhound. It is possible that Lee or 
Albert Sidney Johnston would have done this ; but I do 
not believe there were many officers in either the Union 
or the Confederate service who would have strained 
honor to a point so quixotically fine. 
<^_ And back of the persistence in eflort was an equally 
indisputable patriotism. Whether we agree with Semmes 
or not, we must recognize that he believed as heartily 
in the cause he was fighting for as did Davis or Lee. 
Thoughts like the following, confided to the intimate 
privacy of his diary, are incontestable evidence of sin- 
cerity as well as of devotion : " My dear family I consign 
with confidence to God's care, and our beloved country 
I feel certain He will protect and preserve, and in due 
time raise up to peace, independence, and prosperity. 
Our struggle must be just and holy in His sight, and as 
He governs the world by inexorable laws of right and 
wrong, the wicked and cruel people who are seeking our 
destruction cannot fail to be beaten back and destroyed. ^ 
But it may be His pleasure to scourge us severely for our 
past sins and unworthiness, and to admit us to His favor 
again, only when we shall have been purified." 32 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 241 

Nor was this patriotism of Semmes much tempered by- 
personal ambition or by any stimulus of excitement or 
adventure. As to ambition, however, it may be interest- 
ing to compare Semmes's letter to Howell Cobb, sug- 
gesting that it would be well for the Confederacy to have 
only a small regular navy and to give resigning United 
States naval officers rank equivalent to what they for- 
merly held.33 But the captain of the Alabama was well 
over fifty, and at that age personal comfort means more 
than plaudits and laurels. It is really most curious to see 
the supposedly triumphant and exultant pirate sighing 
over the tediousness and weariness of his lot and eager 
to give ** a thousand leagues of sea for one acre of bar- 
ren ground." " Perhaps this constant, stormy tumbling 
about at sea is the reason why we seamen are so calm 
and quiet on shore. We come to hate all sorts of com- 
motion, whether physical or moral." ^4 And again, even 
more vividly and pointedly: "Barometer gradually fall- 
ing. Ship rolling and pitching in the sea and all things 
dreary looking and uncomfortable. I am supremely 
disgusted with the sea and all its belongings. The 
fact is, I am past the age when man ought to be 
subjected to the hardships and discomforts of the sea. 
Seagoing is one of those constant strifes which none 
but the vigorous, the hardy, and the hopeful — in 
short, the youthful, or, at most, the middle-aged — 
should be engaged in. The very roar of the wind 
through the rigging, with its accompaniments of roll- 



242 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

ing and tumbling, hard, overcast skies, etc., gives me 
the blues." ^s 

Yet, in spite of age, of gray respectability, of undeni- 
able fine qualities, there is in Semmes a certain strain of 
the pirate, after all. About many of his utterances there 
is a violence not only fierce but coarse, a tone of offen- 
sive vituperation much more appropriate to Captain Kidd 
than to a Christian soldier. His own friends recognize 
this to the extent of apologizing for it. " Semmes's ver- 
bal and written utterances," says Sinclair, "manifest a 
bitterness of feeling towards his foes which is calculated 
to mislead one respecting his real character. . . . He 
was uniformly just in his decisions. He respected pri- 
vate property and private feelings. And it was the rule, 
rather than the exception, that he provided in the best 
possible way for his prisoners, military and civil ; and we 
have often seen that he gave them boats and whatever 
their ships afforded of comfort and luxury to get away 
with. This was not the conduct of a malevolent partisan, 
but distinctly that of a generous and chivalrous foe. It 
is by his acts rather than by his utterances that a man 
like Semmes should be judged. He had a noble and 
generous soul." ^s Unfortunately our words sometimes 
go further than our acts, especially when we print them, 
and it is hard to reconcile all that Semmes wrote with 
perfect nobility or generosity. 

It is true, he had much excuse. He was pursued with 
scorn and vilification which no one thought of bestowing 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 243 

on Johnston or Lee ; yet there was no reason for calling 
him a common malefactor and enemy of the human race, 
any more than them. It is true, further, that his tongue 
often belied his real feeling, as it occasionally showed 
itself, for instance when, long after the war, he replied 
" very gently" to Mrs. Kell, who asked him to help re- 
concile her husband, "He has fifteen years or more 
longer to live to feel as I do. I am fifteen years his 
senior. Give him that long to grow reconciled to things 
as they are." " Finally, it is true that the ugly violence 
of expression does not appear in the earlier Mexican 
book, which is a model of dignity, sanity, and self-re- 
straint. In short, a nervous, sensitive, high-strung na- 
ture was irritated beyond control of itself by the long 
strain of toil and hardship and exposure. As Semmes 
himself admirably expresses it, speaking of his own an- 
tagonist, Winslow : " I had known, and sailed with him, 
in the old service, and knew him then to be a humane 
and Christian gentleman. What the war may have made 
of him, it is impossible to say. It has turned a great deal 
of the milk of human kindness to gall and wormwood." ^^ 
Certainly Semmes's human kindness had been gravely 
affected in that fashion, and none of the above expla- 
nations will serve to excuse a manner of speech which 
would have been impossible not only for Lee or Stephens, 
but even, under any circumstances, for Beauregard, or 
Johnston, or Longstreet. 

Such a charge must be supported by illustrations, 



244 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

however offensive. But it should be understood that 
these illustrations are not unique, but merely represent 
the general tone of Semmes's book, " Memoirs of Service 
Afloat during the War between the States." Even in 
the earlier, simpler diary of actual war days, a note is 
sounded that is far from agreeable. *' If the historian 
perform his duty faithfully, posterity will be amazed at 
the wickedness and corruption of the Northern and 
Western people, and will wonder by what process such 
a depth of infamy was reached in so short a time. The 
secret lies here : The politicians had become political 
stockjobbers, and the seekers of wealth had become 
knaves and swindlers ; and into these classes may be 
divided nearly the whole Yankee population. Such is 
' Plymouth Rock ' in our day, with its Beechers in the 
pulpit and its Lincolns in the chair of Washington, its 
Sumners and Lovejoys in Congress, et id omne genus in 
the contract market." ^9 

One expects this sort of abuse from irresponsible 
agitators, both North and South. One does not expect 
it from officers and gentlemen. But the language of 
Semmes's book is far worse. " The pay of the Federal 
Consul at Maranham, was, I believe, at the time I visited 
the town, about twelve hundred dollars per annum. As 
was to be expected, a small man filled the small place. 
He was quite young, and with commendable Yankee 
thrift, w^as exercising, in the consular dwelling, the occu- 
pation of a dentist ; the 'old flag' flying over his files, 



V; 



RAPHAEL SEMMES 245 

false teeth, and spittoons. He probably wrote the de- 
spatch, a copy of which had been handed me, in the 
intervals between the entrance and exit of his customers. 
It was not wonderful, therefore, that this semi-diplomat, 
charged with the affairs of the Great Republic, and with 
the decayed teeth of the young ladies of Maranham, at 
one and the same time, should be a little confused as to 
points of international law, and the rules of Lindley Mur- 
ray." 40 

The man who wrote that had a coarse streak in him 
somewhere. Stuart liked rhetoric, but he could never 
have written that. Jackson detested Yankees, but he 
could never have written that. 

And with this vein of detestable facetiousness Semmes 
mingles an almost equally trying assortment of cheap 
heroics. He quotes Byron, "Don Juan," and "The Cor- 
sair," and " The Island," until you would think Conrad 
and Lara were his ideals and Jack Bunce, alias Alta- 
mont, his model. 

Such a tribute to the power of the gallery goes far 
to prepare us for the description furnished by one of 
Semmes' s captives, the master of the Brilliant, a descrip- 
tion no doubt exaggerated, but which may not seem so 
much so now, as when we were fresh from the touching 
— and absolutely genuine — confessions about home 
and God. It may be added that this passage furnishes the 
only explanation I have seen of " Old Beeswax," a name 
accepted by Semmes himself and frequently referred to 



246 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

by officers and crew. I quote from the New York *' Her- 
ald" of October 17, 1862: ** Captain Hagar says that, 
however much Semmes may have had the appearance 
of a gentleman when an officer of the United States 
Navy, he has entirely changed now. He sports a huge 
mustache, the ends of which are waxed in a manner 
to throw that of Victor Emmanuel entirely into the 
shade, and it is evident that it occupies much of his at- 
tention. His steward waxes it every day carefully, and 
so prominent is it that the sailors of the Alabama call 
him ' Old Beeswax.' His whole appearance is that of a . 
corsair, and the transformation appears to be complete 
from Commander Raphael Semmes, U.S.N., to a combi- 
nation of Lafitte, Kidd, and Gibbs, the three most noted 
pirates the world has ever known." 

So, you see, I can cherish a watery image of my pi- 
rate, after all. And if the words attributed to him by his 
near friend, Maffitt, on the sinking of his ship, are genu- 
ine, neither Cleveland nor the Red Rover could have 
struck an attitude or phrased an exit more effectively. 
" Raising his sword with affectionate solicitude, he gently 
placed it on the binnacle, sorrowfully exclaiming, ' Rest 
thee, excalibur, thy grave is with the Alabama.' " ^i 

Excalibur! oh I 



IX 
The Battle of Gettysburg 



IX 

THE BATTTLE OF GETTYSBURG 

It was the climax of a struggle that had been inevitable 
for fifty years ; and only now, fifty years later, can we look 
back calmly and disentangle the complicated motives 
and passions that led up to it. 

In the Revolutionary War Massachusetts and Vir- 
ginia, New York and Georgia, fought side by side, with 
equal courage and equal sacrifice. All alike felt that free 
men must move freely to the full and perfect realization 
of a great republic in a great new continent. 

Then the dividing-line came to be drawn more and 
more sharply. The North was busy, eager, restless, full 
of new thoughts and new devices, impatient of tradition 
and dignity, always looking forward. It lived in cities, 
amidst the hurry and bustle of cities, the whir of ma- 
chinery, the smoke of factory chimneys, everywhere the 
ardor for progress, material and spiritual. 

The South was dreamy and quiet ; it loved old days 
and old ways, old stately manners. It dwelt in broad 
fields, by quiet rivers, handed down possessions and 
ideas from father to son, and read the books and thought 
the thoughts of a hundred years before. To a people 
so living, the sleepy service of the negro slave was in 
the natural order of things, just as the impatient North 



250 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

believed that nothing was well done that a man did not 
do for himself. 

In the same way the North, with its seven-league 
boots of progress, stepped right over the old state lim- 
its, and forgot them, looking every day more to the 
Union as the central organ of government, while the 
South wanted as little governing as possible, and that 
little done by Virginia, or South Carolina, or Missis- 
sippi. 

How could they long get on together? Both sides 
loved their country and American ideals. Both sides 
produced great men, men of power, men of patriotism, 
who strove with all their might to reconcile the dififer- 
ence between the opposing forces. As we look back now, 
it seems as if that could and should have been done. 
But the chasm was too wide and too deep. The South 
called the North "shopkeepers," and said the Northern 
soul was tainted with the sordid greed of gain — and 
there was some truth in it. The North called the South 
"slave-drivers," and said that slavery was a relic of bar- 
barism, utterly out of date in free America — and there 
was truth in this also. Bitter words bred bitter feelings, 
and bitter feelings bitter words again, until it seemed as 
if there was nothing but bitterness. 

Meanwhile the great West was growing. Which should 
it belong to, North or South ? Whichever won the West 
would undoubtedly be the controlling power in the na- 
tion. The struggle was long and complicated. When at 



THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 251 

last the North definitely won, politically, with the elec- 
tion of Lincoln, the Southern States had become so 
estranged from their Northern sisters that they refused 
to live with them any longer, and that meant war. 

Perhaps war was indispensable to show each side the 
great qualities of the other. For at the beginning each 
despised the other. The war would be brief enough, said 
the North, for the South was all blufi and bluster, but 
when it came to real fighting, would do nothing. The 
war would be brief enough, said the South, for what 
could clerks and lawyers and factory hands do against 
a people who lived on horseback, and were quick with 
their weapons ? So both sides talked in the early days 
of '61. After four years they were wiser. 

At first the South was doubtless better prepared. 
More clearly than the North, she had seen trouble com- 
ing. Her leaders were men of fighting spirit, who took 
practical military measures at once. The common sol- 
diers, though all a little too ready to be officers, as Stuart 
said, were in fine training, accustomed to outdoor life, 
good riders, and much more used to arms than the aver- 
age Northerner. The heavy, unwieldy bulk of the North 
got into battle slowly ; it could not realize that a life- 
and-death struggle was at hand. Moreover, the North 
had to invade and attack, always the more difficult part 
to play. 

The great drama falls as naturally into acts as a 
Shakespearean tragedy. Act one: alarms, excursions, 



252 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

challenge, and counter-challenge, still some belated at- 
tempts at conciliation and reconciliation. Then the guns 
heard at Sumter wake the dullest from their sleep. There 
is busy marching to and fro, a death here, a death there, 
a broken skirmish with uncertain victory. Two armed 
mobs gather near Washington, rush at each other, sway 
back and forth like two monsters in blind fury, part, and 
the routed Unionists hurry in confusion from the field 
of Bull Run, leaving the South victor in the first great 
battle. 

Act two keeps the South still ahead. In the West, to be 
sure, one Union man, with slow, steady, iron fist, ham- 
mers his way upward, regardless of opposition, indiflfer- 
ent to failure, seeing the end clearly from the beginning. 
Moreover, the Union navy, with its strangling blockade, 
played from the first the part that was to prove most 
significant of all. 

But the eastern side of the stage, the more conspicu- 
ous side, was for two years full of Southern triumph. 
Jackson, dashing hither and thither with the speed of 
Napoleon, drove his bewildered opponents from the Val- 
ley. Lee, succeeding Johnston in command of the Army 
of Northern Virginia, drew Jackson to himself, and com- 
pelled the superior forces of McClellan to abandon the 
Peninsula. Lincoln, seeking a great man in vain, tried 
the boasting Pope. Lee and Jackson beat him at Bull 
Run. McClellan was tried again, failed to conquer at 
Antietam, and was dropped once more. Lincoln turned 



THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 253 

to Burnside, and Burnside hurled thousands to death 
against Lee and Jackson on the heights of Fredericks- 
burg. Lincoln turned to Hooker, and Hooker entangled 
"the finest army on this planet " in the thickets of Chan- 
cellorsville, where Lee and Jackson throttled it in a close- 
drawn net of woven steel. 

And act two closed with Southern triumph, so that 
Lincoln told his God " that we could not stand another 
Chancellorsville or Fredericksburg." And his God heard 
him, for in Virginia the South never really triumphed 
any more. 

All this Southern victory came under one man, one of 
the great soldiers of the world, Robert E. Lee. This man 
typified all that was best in the South. A member of one 
of the most distinguished Virginia families, he had the 
fine qualities of his class, with none of its weaknesses. 
He had courage without bluster, dignity without arro- 
gance, reserve without haughtiness, tranquillity without 
sloth, A soldier in all his regal bearing, in every fibre of 
his body, his character was far larger than is essential 
to the profession of arms. In the great decisions of life 
he guided his action by what seemed to him the prin- 
ciples of duty, and by those only. Political animosity 
long called him, and sometimes still calls him, traitor ; 
but if the word means a man who sells his convictions 
for a price, it was never less deserved. For three years 
the South gave him absolute trust, and no people ever 
trusted more wisely. 



254 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

As a soldier, Lee was bold to excess. Working with 
the swift agency of "Stonewall" Jackson, he struck 
blow after blow, each more aggressive and more au- 
dacious than the preceding one, till he came to feel that 
the shifting and uncertain Union leadership was no 
match for him anywhere. With Jackson's aid he won 
the splendid victory of Chancellorsville. Then, although 
Jackson was gone, Lee thought he could invade the 
North, destroy Hooker and his demoralized army, and 
perhaps dictate terms of peace in Washington, or even 
in Philadelphia or New York. With triumph in his 
heart and in the hearts of his soldiers, he crossed the 
Potomac, and marched north to the vicinity of the little 
town of Gettysburg. 

Meanwhile the Union army had again changed com- 
manders, and Hooker had given place to General George 
G. Meade. Meade was a plain man, a quiet man ; see- 
ing him in private life, you would never have taken him 
for a soldier. He dealt little in the fuss and show of war, 
little in words, wrote no magniloquent dispatches. The 
last thing he talked of was himself, and therefore, after 
the great struggle was over, others got much credit that 
should have been his. 

But he was a thinker ; he believed that battles de- 
pended more on brains than on sabres ; he thought out 
his strategy to the end, yet was quick also to meet an 
emergency that disarranged his thinking. Above all, he 
should be forever honored for the circumstances under 



THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 255 

which he fought Gettysburg. To take a beaten army 
from a beaten commander, and at three days' notice 
fight a battle against troops like Lee's under a general 
like Lee, was as hard a task as was ever imposed on 
mortal man in this fighting world. Meade accepted it 
without a murmur, and saved a nation. Yet some grumble 
because he did not do more. 

So the battle at Gettysburg came. Neither commander 
meant to fight just there. But the strange chances of 
war brought on a conflict in a position eminently favor- 
able to the Union army, and correspondingly difficult for 
the Confederates. Meade's troops held a curved ridge, 
where he could easily support one part of his line with 
another. Lee had to spread his forces outside the ridge, 
and could not be sure of their attacking all at once. Yet, 
overconfident, he determined to fight, feeling that to 
withdraw would mean the foiling of all his hopes. 

On the last day of June the Union troops entered the 
town of Gettysburg at the northern end of the ridge 
above mentioned. On July i, the Confederates began to 
attack them there. Neither commander-in-chief was on 
the field. Reynolds, one of the ablest and one of the no- 
blest of the Northern generals, had charge at first, and 
would probably have prevented disaster if he had lived. 
But he was shot early in the fighting. 

Doubleday and Howard, who succeeded him, could 
not control the situation. The Confederates swept on 
impetuously, and it almost looked as if the experience of 



256 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

Chancellorsville were to be repeated. But there was no 
Stonewall Jackson to profit instantly by the enemy's con- 
fusion. Hancock, sent forward by Meade to take entire 
command, succeeded in pulling the troops together ; and 
Ewell, who was at the head of Jackson's corps, did not 
venture, in the uncertainties of coming darkness, to carry 
out the discretionary instructions that Lee had given him. 

Therefore, when night closed, the Union army still 
held the strong position on the ridge, and the Confeder- 
ates had won no real victory. Their success had been 
such, however, as to convince most of them, including 
the commander-in-chief, that the next day would set 
Meade and his troops in full retreat toward Washington. 

The next day came, July 2. Meade had established 
himself firmly on the curve of the ridge ; his flanks sup- 
ported each other. But at the southern end of the ridge, 
Great Round Top and Little Round Top were, in the 
morning, unduly exposed. It was here that Lee, relying 
upon Ewell at the northern end to distract the attention 
of the enemy, determined to make his main attack. 

This attack was to be led by Longstreet, a splendid 
fighter, but a man too confident in his own opinions, and 
in this case, perhaps justly, in the opinion that Lee was 
making a mistake. Longstreet's heart was therefore not 
wholly in his work, and either from this reason, or from 
difficulties really insurmountable, he did not begin the 
assault on the Round Tops until the afternoon, when it 
was too late. 



THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 257 

When he did attack, it was indeed magnificent. Gray 
and blue fought with equal valor. Perhaps they realized 
that they were making history, and that the fate of a na- 
tion depended on their efforts ; or perhaps they fought 
without any realization except that they were Americans, 
and that those heights were to be taken or to be held. 
But, as throughout the whole war, with courage so equal, 
defense was stronger than attack. 

Again and again Longstreet hurled his columns at 
those rocky slopes, sometimes gaining a foothold in one 
place, sometimes in another. Each time Sickles, Warren, 
Humphreys, and the rest threw the aggressors back, and 
the immense advantage of the curved Union position 
enabled Meade to sustain weak and threatened points, 
while Lee's separated flanks could not act in harmony 
with each other. 

Thus, at the end of the second day, the Confederate 
general had tried both wings of his antagonist, and in 
spite of temporary shifts of fortune, had found them both 
invulnerable. 

There remained the Union centre. Cemetery Hill, as 
yet untried. To storm that high point, which could be 
readily strengthened by troops hurried from either flank, 
seemed a wild adventure. Events proved that it was a 
wild adventure. When the general-in-chief assigned the 
task to Pickett's splendid division, which had all this 
time been held in reserve, Longstreet, the corps com- 
mander, again protested. " There never yet were 15,000 



258 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

men who could cross that plain and take that hill," he 
said. 

But Lee believed in his troops ; believed that they 
could go anywhere and do anything. He believed that 
with proper support from other divisions and from artil- 
lery, Pickett's 15,000 men could cross that plain and 
take that hill. And he ordered them to do it. 

Friends assert and foes admit that it was one of the 
great charges of the world. First came the prelude 
from an orchestra of scores of cannon, the roar of an 
artillery duel unsurpassed even in the battles of Na- 
poleon. Still the cannon thundered, and still Long- 
street delayed to say the word for those 15,000 to march 
out to death. At last, when ammunition was failing, he 
gave in. 

Forth rode Pickett, with his long locks and his chiv- 
alrous bearing. At his back were regiments with the 
best blood of the South — men ready to die for what 
they believed as good a cause as any man ever died for. 
In front of them rose the slopes of Cemetery Hill, crowned 
by walls and fences, and defended by men whose cour- 
age was equal to their own. On swept those splendid 
lines, winning the admiration of friend and foe alike. Shell 
hissed over them, shot tore through them, men fell to 
right and left, ranks thinned, whole regiments wavered ; 
still they pressed on, reached the foot of the hill, swarmed 
up it, and for a moment mingled in furious conflict with 
the defenders. Then they rolled back, the few that were 



THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 259 

left of them, not routed, not flying, but sullenly, slowly, 
back across the blood-soaked plain, among the heaps of 
dead. Gettysburg was over. The third act of the drama 
was finished. The Union was saved. 

Yes, saved. Gettysburg, with Vicksburg, completed 
the climax. The fourth act dragged on through the vicis- 
situdes of Chickamauga and Chattanooga in the West. 
The repulses of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor gave 
the Confederacy momentary hope. But the slow, strang- 
ling grip of Sherman's host in Georgia at last prepared 
the way for the fifth and final act, which terminated in 
the long agony of Petersburg and Appomattox. 

Yes, the Union was saved. And to-day the North has 
no more reason to rejoice at it than the South has. 
Think what secession and separation would have meant : 
two nations forever facing each other in arms across the 
Potomac! A standing army of half a million men on 
each side would have been needed, in instant readiness 
for war likely to come at any moment over disputes 
about territory, disputes about emigration, disputes about 
commerce ; especially disputes about slavery, if, as is 
probable, the Confederacy had continued to be a great 
slave empire. 

Think what it means for the development of this great 
continent ! Instead of two, or perhaps half a dozen, rival 
nations straining every effort to outdo one another in 
military equipment, jealous of one another's glory and 
prosperity, we are one great nation of brothers, all 



26o CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS 

profiting by one another's progress, all alike proud of 
one civilization, one Constitution, and one flag. 

Think what it means for more than this one conti- 
nent ! Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago our fathers 
began a great new experiment in democracy — the gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people, and for the peo- 
ple. What if, after less than a century of trial, the ex- 
periment had failed, and the great, growing, triumphant 
republic had fallen to pieces, shattered by its own weight, 
giving evidence to its enemies that the people could not 
harmonize their discords ; that they could not govern 
and control themselves. For this the old aristocracies of 
Europe had waited ; this they had gloated over in antici- 
pation. Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville filled 
the French and English conservatives with ecstasy. 
Gettysburg taught them that the United States were not 
5-et dead, Appomattox that they were still united, and 
that democracy was still the hope of the world. 

As South and North grow nearer and nearer together, 
the anniversaries of these events must be more and more 
cherished. All animosity will pass out of them. Meade 
and Lee, Hancock and Longstreet, Reynolds and Pick- 
ett, even more, the common soldiers, North and South 
both, were all Americans, all ours, ours to praise, ours to 
be proud of, ours to learn from. The inheritance of their 
courage, their sacrifice, their loyalty to high ideals is one 
of which no country can ever have too much. And if the 
tradition of these great souls brings with it glory, it 



THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 261 

brings duty with it also. We are not called upon to go 
out and fight in arms as they did, but there is plenty of 
fighting left. The danger to a republic from open war is 
great. The danger from self-indulgence, from pampered 
living, from the spirit of letting others do things, is even 
greater. I am ready to believe that at a sudden call of 
duty our automobiling, dancing, money-getting youth 
would respond as did those of '61, drop their play, and 
go out to attack or defend a Cemetery Hill. But I wish 
we could make them remember that even in common, 
humdrum, daily life every man has his Gettysburg sooner 
or later. Let him fight it and win it, so that his little re- 
public — for of such is made the great Republic — shall 
be forever triumphant and free. 



THE END 



NOTES 



TITLES OF BOOKS MOST FREQUENTLY CITED, 
SHOWING ABBREVIATIONS USED 



Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 

Butler, Pierce, Judah P. Benjamin. 

Chesnut, Mary Boykin, A Diary from Dixie. 

Cleveland, Henry, Alexander H. Stephens. 

The Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter. From 
the private journals and other papers of 
Commander Raphael Semmes, C.S.N. , and 
other officers. 

The Congressional Globe. 

Cooke, John Esten, The Wearing of the Gray. 

Davis, Jefferson, The Rise and Fall of the Con- 
federate Government. 

Davis, Varina Howell, Jefferson Davis. 

Fremantle, a. J., Three Months in the Southern 
States. 

Hughes, Robert M., General Johnston. 

Johnson, Bradley T., A Memoir of the Life 
and Public Services of Joseph E. Johnston. 

Johnston, Joseph E., A Narrative of Military 
Operations. 

Johnston, R. M., and Browne, W. H., Life of 
Alexander H. Stephens. 

Jones, J. B., A Rebel War Clerk's Diary. 

Kell, John McIntosh, Recollections of a Naval 
Life. 

Kohler, Max J., Judah P. Benjamin: States- 
man and Jurist, in Publications of the Ameri- 
can Jewish Society, no. 12. 

LoNGSTREET, Helen D., Lee and Longstreet at 
High Tide. 

Longstreet, James, From Manassas to Appo- 
mattox. 

McClellan, H. B., Life and Campaigns of 
Major General J. E. B. Stuart. 

Maury, Dabney H., Recollections of a Vir- 
ginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil 
Wars. 



B. and L. 

Butler. 

Mrs. Chesnut. 

Cleveland. 



Alabama and Sumter. 

Globe. 

Cooke, Wearing. 

Davis, Rise and Fall. 
Mrs. Davis. 

Fremantle. 
Hughes. 

Johnson. 

Johnston, Narrative. 

Johnston and Browne. 
Jones, Diary. 

Kell. 

Kohler. 

Mrs. Longstreet. 

Longstreet, M. to A. 

McClellan. 

Maury. 



266 



NOTES 



Official Records of the Union and Confederate 
Armies (volumes referred to by serial num- 
bers, Arabic). 

Official Records of the Union and Confederate 
Navies. 

Phillips, Ulrich B., The Life of Robert 
Toombs. 

Pollard, Edward A., The Early Life, Cam- 
paigns, and Public Services of Robert E. Lee, 
with a Record of the Campaigns and Heroic 
Deeds of his Companions in Arms. 

Pollard, Edward A., The Life of Jefferson 
Davis. 

Pollard, Edward A., The Lost Cause. 

Reed, John C, The Brothers' War. 

Rhodes, James Ford, A History of the United 
States from the Compromise of 1850. 

Richardson, J. D., Messages and Papers of the 
Confederacy. 

Roman, Alfred, The Military Operations of 
General Beauregard. 

Semmes, Raphael, Service Afloat and Ashore 
during the Mexican War. 

Semmes, Raphael, Memoirs of Service Afloat 
during the War between the States. 

Sinclair, Arthur, Two Years on the Alabama. 

Southern Historical Society Papers. 

Stephens, Alexander H., Recollections of. 

Stephens, Alexander H., A Constitutional 
View of the Late War between the States. 

Stovall, Pleasant A., Robert Toombs. 

Toombs, Robert; Stephens, Alexander H.; 
and Cobb, Howell, The Correspondence of, 
edited by Ulrich B. Phillips, in Annual 
Report of American Historical Association, 
for the year 1911. 

Wise, John S,, The End of an Era. 



O.R. 
0. R. N. 
Phillips. 

Pollard, Lee. 

Pollard, Davis. 
Pollard, L. C. 
Reed. 

Rhodes, U.S. 

Richardson. 

Roman. 

Mexican War. 

Service Afloat. 

Sinclair. 

S. H. S. P. 

Stephens, Diary. 

Stephens, War between 

the States. 

Stovall. 



Toombs Correspondence. 
Wise. 



NOTES 
CHAPTER I 

1. J. D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol. ii, p. 190. 

2. E. P. Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate, p. 577 

3. M. to A., p. 432. 

4. L. C, p. 439. 

5. Quoted in Hughes, p. 293. 

6. Johnson, p. 304. 

7. J. R. Young, Around the World with General Grant, vol. I, p. 212. 

8. The Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 264. 

9. J. C. Ropes, The Story of the Civil War, vol. 11, p. 158. 
ID. Maury, p. 176. 

11. Fremantle, p. 124. 

12. Hughes, p. 32. 

13. J. W. Jones, Life and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, p. 41. 

14. Hughes, p. 195. 

15. O. R., vol. 14, p. 464. 

16. Johnson, p. 99. 

17. 0. R., vol. 99, p. 1247. 

18. Johnson, p. 266. 

19. Mrs. Chesnut, p. 249. 

20. Mrs. D. Giraud Wright, A Southern Girl in '61, p. 155. 

21. Johnson, p. 567. 

22. 0. R., vol. 36, p. 199. 

23. 0. R., vol. 76, p. 882. 

24. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 987. 

25. O. R., vol. 14, p. 508, 

26. 0. R., vol. 36, p. 216. 

27. O. R., vol. 36, p. 207. 

28. 0. R., vol. 38, p. 1070. 

29. Hughes, p. 86. 

30. W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, vol. ll, p. 141. 

31. In Pollard, Davis, p. 376. 

32. Fremantle, p. 125. 

33. 0. R., vol. 14, p. 551. 

34. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 1065. 

35. Hughes, p. 85. 



268 NOTES 

36. 0. R., vol. 14, p. 499. 

37. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 1075. 

38. 0. R., vol. 35, p. 726. 

39. O. R., vol. 53, p. 742. 

40. 0. R., vol. 56, p. 801. 

41. Communicated by Captain F. M. Colston, to whom it was related by 
General S. D. Lee. 

42. Hughes, p. 155. 

43. O. R., vol. 56, p. 857. 

44. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 1062. 

45. O. R., vol. 58, p. 603. 

46. O. R., vol. 58, p. 604. 

47. 0. R., vol. 59, p. 618. 

48. O. R., vol. 35, p. 781. 

49. Harvie to Davis, 0. R., vol. 53, p. 490. 

50. Mrs. D. Giraud Wright, A Southern Girl in '61, p. I85. 

51. No Name Magazine, September, 1890, p. 226. 

52. Evansville Courier, April 12, 1891. 

53. R. and F., vol. i, p. 355. 

54. O. R., vol. 99, p. 1308. 

55. B. and L., vol. iv, p. 273. 

56. Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, Publications, vol. i, p. 
122. 

57. B. and L., vol. 11, 209. 

58. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 203. 

59. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 205. 

60. Narrative, p. 54. 

61. Narrative, p. 229. 

62. Narrative, p. 269. 

63. Conversation with Colonel Allan, in Marshall Papers (MS.). 

64. U.S., vol. II, p. 460. 

65. Johnson, p. 327. 

66. Johnson, p. 329. 

67. Johnson, p. 308. 

68. O. R., vol. 5, p. 105. 

69. Hughes, p. 84. 

70. R. Stiles, Four Years under Marse Robert, p. 90. 

71. J. D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol. li, p. 53. 

72. Fremantle, p. 117. 

73. Hughes, p. 306. 

74. The History of the Rebellion (American ed., 1827), vol. iii. p. 1327. 

75. O. R., vol. 5, p. 1059. 

76. 0. R., vol. 35, p. 624. 



NOTES 269 

77. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 777. 

78. John Esten Cooke, Life of General Robert E. Lee, p. 66. 

79. O. R., vol. 12, p. 275. 

80. 0. R., vol. 35, p. 624. 

81. R. Stiles, Four Years under Marse Robert, p. 90. 

82. Mrs. D. Giraud Wright, A Southern Girl in '61, p. 240. 

83. Four Years under Marse Robert, p. 90. 

84. Hughes, p. 29. 

85. 0. R., vol. 58, p. 543. 

86. 0. R., vol. 38, p. 948. 

87. M.toA.,p. 100. 

88. O. R., vol. 56, p. 878. 

89. D. H. Maury, in 5. H. S. P., vol. xviii, p. 179. 

90. 0. R., vol. 76, p. 891. 

91. Mrs. Chesnut, p. 350. 

92. Mrs. Pickett, in Lippincott's Magazine, vol. LXXIX, p. 55. 

CHAPTER II 

1. In 5. H. S. P., vol. I, p. 100. 

2. McClellan, p. 8. 

3. R. E. Frayser, in 5. H. S. P., vol. xxvi, p. 89. 

4. McClellan, p. 29. 

5. McClellan, p. 32. 

6. Cooke, Wearing, p. 39. 

7. H. von Borcke, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, vol. 
II, p. 60. 

8. John Esten Cooke, Mohun, p. 158. 

9. McClellan, p. 390. 

10. J. Scheibert, Der Biirgerkrieg in den nordamerikanischen Staaten, p. 67. 

11. 0. R., vol. 12, p. 1038. 

12. 0. R., vol. 28, p. 55. 

13. Cooke, Wearing, p. 27. 

14. 0. R., vol. 16, p. 732. 

15. McClellan, p. 409. 

16. 0. R., vol. 16, p. 742. 

17. 0. R., vol. 108, p. 860. 

18. In letter to the author. 

19. 0. R., vol. 16, p. 726. 

20. 0. R., vol. 40, p. 789. 

21. McClellan, p. 321. 

22. 0. R., vol. 16, p. 731. 

23. 0. R., vol. 12, p. 1036. 



270 NOTES 

24. 0. R., vol. 28, p. 54. 

25. Fremantle, p. 293. 

26. J. Scheibert, Der Biirgerkrieg in den nordamerikanischen Staaten, p. 59. 

27. 0. R., vol. 13, p. 514. 

28. In Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, p. 337. 

29. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 177. 

30. Longstreet, M. to A., p. 573. 

31. J. Scheibert to J. W. Jones, in S. H. S. P., vol. ix, p. 571. 

32. John S. Mosby, Stuart's Cavalry in tJie Gettysburg Campaign, p. xix. 

33. Letter to McClellan, in McClellan, p. 256. 

34. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 1063. 

35. Cooke, Wearing, p. 31. 

36. 0. R., vol. 40, p. 821. 

37. 0. R., vol. 13, p. 518. 

38. John S. Mosby, War Reminiscences and Stuart's Cavalry Campaigns, 
p. 220. 

39. John S. Mosby, War Reminiscences, p. 229. 

40. Fitzhugh Lee, in S. H. S. P., vol. i, p. 102. 

41. John S. Mosby, War Reminiscences, p. 228. 

42. Cooke, Wearing, p. 18. 

43. War Reminiscences, p. 231. 

44. Cooke, Wearing, p. 23. 

45. John Esten Cooke, Stonewall Jackson, p. 51. 

46. 0. R., vol. 28, p. 54. 

47. 0. R., vol. 108, p. 594. 

48. S. H. S. P., vol. XI, p. 510. 

49. In 5. H. S. P., vol. I, p. loi. 

50. Wearing, p. 19. 

51. Cooke, Wearing, p. 23. 

52. H. von Borcke, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, vol. 
I, p. 309. 

53. John Esten Cooke, Stonewall Jackson, p. 375. 

54. J. W. Jones, Life and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, p. 391. 

55. 0. R., vol. 12, p. 1040, 

56. 0. R., vol. 12, p. 1037. 

57. 0. R., vol. 48, p. 102. 

58. John Esten Cooke, Stonewall Jackson, p. 399. 

59. H. B. McClellan, in 5. H. S. P., vol. vill, p. 191. 

60. Cooke, Wearing, p. 25. 

61. Cooke, Wearing, p. 25. 

62. H. von Borcke, Memoirs, vol. I, p. 195. 

63. Cooke, Wearing, p. 200. 

64. H. W. Manson, in The Confederate Veteran, vol. 11, p. 12. 



NOTES 271 

65. H. von Borcke, Memoirs, vol. 11, p. 16. 

66. Cooke, Wearing, p. 26. 

67. John Esten Cooke, Mohun, p. 26. 

68. H. von Borcke, Memoirs, vol. ll, p. 49. 

69. Cooke, Wearing, p. 29. 

70. John Esten Cooke, Mohun, p. 26. 

71. 0. R., vol. 16, p. 737. 

72. O. R., vol. 28, p. 54. 

73. R., vol. 44, p. 690. 

74. O. R., vol. 40, p. 836. 

75. 0. R., vol. 40, p. 792. 

76. O. R., vol. 16, p. 741. 

77. 0. R., vol. 16, p. 742. 

78. General T. F. Rodenbough, in Photographic History of the Civil War, 
vol. IV, p. 69. 

CHAPTER III 

1. 0. R., vol. 26, p. 903. 

2. Fremantle, p. 242. 

3. Pollard, Lee, p. 420. 

4. Fremantle, p. 273. 

5. Fremantle, p. 267. 

6. Pollard, Lee, p. 419. 

7. Fremantle, p. '273. 

8. 0. R., vol. 2, p. 544. 

9. Fremantle, p. 261. 

10. 0. R., vol. 26, p. 926. 

11. 0. R., vol. 89, p. 1140. 

12. M. to A., p. 30. 

13. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 524. 

14. O. R., vol. no, p. 549. 

15. 0. R., vol. 1X0, p. 550. 

16. 5. H. S. P., vol. v, p. 71 (in article reprinted from the Philadelphia 
Times). 

17. 0. R., vol. 49, p. 713. 

18. Fremantle, p. 246. 

19. Quoted by Mrs. Longstreet, p. 83. 

20. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 390. 

21. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 663. 

22. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 663. 

23. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 665. 

24. B. and L., vol. in, p. 246. 



272 NOTES 

25. S. H. S. P., vol. V, p. 60 (in article reprinted from Philadelphia Times) 

26. 5. H. S. P., vol. V, p. 68 (in article reprinted from Philadelphia Times). 

27. To Lee, 0. R., vol. 49, p. 699. 

28. Mackall to Johnston, 0. R., vol. 53, p. 742. 

29. 0. R., vol. no, p. 560. 

30. Jbid. 

31. M. to A., p. 66. 

32. M. to A., p. 546. 

33. M. to A., p. 547. 

34. 0. R., vol. 54, p. 502. 

35. 0. R., vol. 54, p. 498. 

36. 0. R., vol. 56, p. 756. 

37. 0. R., vol. 56, p. 757. 

38. 0. R., vol. 54, p. 468, 

39. 0. R., vol. 54, p. 500. 

40. Jones, Diary, vol. 11, p. 215. 

41. M. to A., p. 507. 

42. 0. R., vol. 89, p. 1268. 

43. O. R., vol. 96, p. 1258. 

44. O. R., vol. 96, p. 1289. 

45. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 115. 

46. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 65. 

47. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 83. 

48. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 62. 

49. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 84. 

50. M. to A., p. 384. 

51. G. M. Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, p. 88. 

52. S. H. S. P., vol. IV, p. 64. 

53. M. to A., p. 375. 

54. 5. H. S. P., vol. XIV, p. 118. 

55. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 674. 

56. M. to A., p. 65. 

57. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 125. 

58. B. and L., vol. 11, p. 405. 

59. 0. R., vol. 12, p. 566. 

60. B. and L., vol. iii, p. 350. 

61. 0. R., vol. 108, p. 1056. 

62. 0. R., vol. 108, p. 663. 

63. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 118. 

64. Ibid. 

65. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 117. 

66. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 116. 

67. Lieutenant Owen, in B. and L., vol. in, p. 97. 



NOTES 273 

68. 0. R., vol. no, p. 582. 

69. Mrs. Longstreet, p. 224. 

70. Fremantle, p. 278. 

71. R. Stiles, Four Years under Marse Robert, p. 247. 

72. M. to A., p. 566. 

73. M. to A., p. 638. 

CHAPTER IV 

1. Samuel Phillips Day, Down South; or an Englishman's Experience at 
the Seat of the American War, vol. I, p. 311. 

2. Wise, p. 330. 

3. Cooke, Wearing, p. 93. 

4. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 772. 

5. Mrs. Chesnut, p. 63. 

6. 0. R., vol. ID, p. 397. 

7. 0. R., vol. 2, p. 907. 

8. 0. R., vol. 2, p. 492, 

9. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 955. 

10. 0. R., vol. 108, p. 689. 

11. Roman, vol. I, p. 347. 

12. Major Giles P. Cooke, 

13. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 918. 

14. Cooke, Wearing, p. 86. 

15. Mrs. Chesnut, p. 99. 

16. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 920. 

17. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 945. 

18. B. and L., vol. i, p. 223. 

19. B. and L., vol. i, p. 220. 

20. Roman, vol. i, p. 88. 

21. 0. R., vol. 25, p. 440. 

22. B. and L., vol. i, p. 277. 

23. Pollard, Lee, p. 255. 

24. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 911. 

25. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 825. 

26. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 918. 

27. Morris Schaff , The Spirit of Old West Point, p. 196. 

28. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 910. 

29. William P. Johnston, Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston, p. 549. 

30. Roman, vol. i, p. 414. 

31. Roman, vol. 11, p. 2. 

32. Roman, vol. i, p. 4. 
^3. Roman, vol. I, p. 5. 



274 NOTES 

34. 0. R., vol. II, p. 405. 

35. O. R., vol. 19, p. 773- 

36. Cooke, Wearing, p. 92. 

37. 0. R., vol. 99, p. 1031. 

38. Cooke, Wearing, p. 91. 

39. 0. R., vol. ID, p. 353. 

40. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 603. 

41. O. R., vol. 2, p. 514. 

42. Pollard, Lee, p. 268. 

43. Fremantle, p. 33. 

44. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 895. 

45. G. T. Beauregard, Commentary on the Campaign and Battle of Manas- 
sas, p. 150. 

46. 0. R., vol. 19, p. 955. 

47. 0. R., vol. no, p. 804. 

48. G. T. Beauregard, Commentary on the Campaign and Battle of Manas- 
sas, p. 37. 

49. E. Grasset, La Guerre de la Secession, vol. 11, p. 199. 

50. 0. R., vol. 2, p. 511. 

51. O. R., vol 2, p. 508. In Rise and Fall Davis printed "dwelling," which 
is certainly more civil than "driveling." 

52. B. and L., vol. I, p. 223. 

CHAPTER V 

1. Kohler, p. 71. 

2. Butler, p. 8. 

3. Butler, p. 424. 

4. U.S., vol. V, p. 63. 

5. Wise, p. 401. 

6. W. E. Dodd, Jefferson Davis, p. 343. 

7. Kohler, p. 79. 

8. London Times, May 9, 1884. 

9. Wise, p. 176. 

10. Globe, 1857-58, pt. I, p. 1070. 

11. Globe, 1857-58, pt. I, p. 1071. 

12. Globe, 35th Congress, ist Sess., vol. i, p. 87. 

13. Globe, 35th Congress, ist Sess., vol. I, p. 157. 

14. Globe, 35th Congress, ist Sess., vol. i, p. 700. 

15. ^ Generation of Judges, by their Reporter, p. 202. 

16. A Generation of Judges, p. 199. 

17. E. H. Coleridge, Life and Correspondence of John Duke, Lord Coleridge, 

vol. II, p. 327, 



NOTES 275 

18. London Times, quoted In Butler, p. 439. 

19. Journals of the Confederate Congress, March 5, 1862. 

20. Works (ed. Ford), vol. ix, p. 362. 

21. To Mason, in Richardson, vol. 11, p. 616. 

22. T. C. De Leon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals, p. 276, 

23. William H. Russell, in North American Review, vol. 166, p. 373 , 
quoted in Kohler. 

24. 0. R., vol. 5, p. 883. 

25. 0. R., vol. 4, p. 453. 

26. In Butler, p. 426. 

27. Butler, p. 332. 

28. Diary, August 10, 1861. 

29. Diary, April 18, 1862. 

30. 5. H. S. P., vol. VI, p. 186. 

31. 0. R., vol. 8, p. 699. 

32. Mrs. Davis, in Butler, p. 245. 

33. S. H. S. P., vol. XIX, p. 384. 

34. The Letters of Charles Lamb (Ainger, 1896), vol. i, p. 258. 

35. E. L. Pierce, Memoirs and Letters of Charles Sumner, vol. in, p. 391. 

36. William H. Russell, My Diary, North and South, p. 175. 

37. Butler, p. 174. 

38. The Green Bag, vol. x, p. 396. 

39. Davis, p. 151. 

40. Jones, Diary, May 22, 1861. 

41. Butler, p. 61. 

42. 0. R., vol. no, p. 198. 

43. 0. R., vol. 4, p. 474. 

44. Kohler, p. 52. 

45. Kohler, p. 82. 

46. Butler, p. 405. 

47. Globe, 1857-58, pt. II, p. 2782. 

48. Globe, 1857-58, pt. II, p. 2823. 

49. London Times, July 2, 1883. 

50. William H. Russell, My Diary, North and South, p. 175. 

51. Butler, p. 64. 

52. Fremantle, p. 213. 

53. Butler, p. 335. 

54. S. H. S. P., vol. XIX, p. 384. 

55. O. R., vol. 5, p. 955. 

56. Butler, p. 228. 

57. O. R., vol. 7, p. 785. 

58. 5. H. S. P., vol. XXXII, p. 170. 

59. Moore's Rebellion Record, vol. xi, p. 82. 



276 NOTES 

60. Richardson, vol. il, p. 619. 

61. Virginia Mason, The Public Life and Diplomatic Correspondence oj 
James Murray Mason, p. 542. 

62. Virginia Mason, Life of Mason, p. 404. 

63. Rise and Fall, vol. i, p. 242. 



CHAPTER VI 

1. Johnston and Browne, p. 294, 

2. Johnston and Browne, p. 81. 

3. Diary, p. 107. 

4. Johnston and Browne, p. 77. 

5. Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 30. 

6. Cleveland, p. 6. 

7. Diary, p. 550. 

8. Johnston and Browne, p. 83. 
Q. Diary, p. 146. 

ID. Johnston and Browne, p. 82. 

11. Johnston and Browne, p. 342. 

12. Johnston and Browne, p. 73. 

13. Johnston and Browne, p. 262. 

14. Johnston and Browne, p. 263. 

15. Johnston and Browne, p. 451. 

16. Ibid. 

17. Johnston and Browne, p. 439. 

18. Diary, p. 472. 

19. Johnston and Browne, p. 288. 

20. Diary, p. 43. 

21. Diary, p. 326. 

22. Dobbin to Cobb, January 15, 1848, Toombs Correspondence, 

23. Diary, p. 10. 

24. Diary, p. 253. 

25. Johnston and Browne, p. 90. 

26. Diary, p. 139. 

27. Diary, p. 58. 

28. Johnston and Browne, p. 40. 

29. Diary, p. 474. 

30. Johnston and Browne, p. 438. 

31. Diary, p. 473. 

32. Cleveland, p. 795. 

33. Diary, p. 96. 

34. Diary, p. 42. 



NOTES 277 

35. War Between the States, vol. 11, p. 625. 

36. To J. Henley Smith, October 13, i860, Toombs Correspondence. 

37. Phillips, p. 228. 

38. War Between the States, vol. il, p. 625. 

39. Johnston and Browne, p. 448. 

40. To Thomas W. Thomas, December 12, 1856, Tooinhs Correspondence. 

41. To Crittenden, February 6, 1849, Toombs Correspondence. 

42. Cleveland, p. 452. 

43. Diary, p. 380. 

44. Diary, p. 14. 

45. Diary, p. 383. 

46. Diary, p. 385. 

47. Diary, p. 311. 

48. Johnston and Browne, p. 298. 

49. Diary, p. 61. 

50. Diary, p. 48. 

51. To editor of Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, January 28, 1852, 
Toombs Correspondence. 

52. Johnston and Browne, p. 239. 

53. To J. Henley Smith, February 24, i860, Toombs Correspondence. 

54. Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 29. 

55. Johnston and Browne, p. 104. 



CHAPTER VII 

1. Richardson, vol. li, p. 152. 

2. Mrs. Davis, vol. i, p. 410. 

3. Stephens, Diary, p. 427. 

4. Reed, p. 237. 

5. Stovall, p. 28. 

6. C. J. Woodbury, in Overland Monthly, Series 2, vol. 7, p. 125. 

7. To Stephens, December 15, 1865, Toombs Correspondence. 

8. Stovall, p. 104. 

9. Stovall, p. 57. 

10. Stovall, p. 53. 

11. Globe, April 25, 1856. 

12. Stovall, p. 198. 

13. Stovall, p. 188. 

14. Stovall, p. 192. 

15. Stovall, p. 90. 

16. Stovall, p. 191. 

17. Globe, April 25, 1856. 



278 NOTES 

i8. Globe, April 27, 1858. 

19. Stovall, p. 71. 

20. Stovall, p. 72. 

21. Globe, May 27, 1856. 

22. Ibid. 

23. Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 215. 

24. Stovall, p. 19. 

25. Stovall, p. 321. 

26. Mrs. Chesnut, February 19, 1861. 

27. Communicated by Mrs. F. M. Colston, from personal recollection. 

28. James D. Waddell, Linton Stephens, p. 387. 

29. Mrs. Davis, vol. i, p. 411. 

30. Stovall, p. 330. 

31. Stephens, Diary, p. 426. 

32. To Stephens, May 17, 1862, Toombs Correspondence. 

33. Stovall, p. 357. 

34. Reed, p. 280. 

35. Johnston and Browne, p. 218. 

36. To Thomas W. Thomas, May i, 1848, Toombs Correspondence. 

37. Gabriel Toombs to Stephens, July 3, 1861, Toombs Correspondence. 

38. Stovall, p. 372. 

39. Stovall, p. 312. 

40. Stovall, p. 355. 

41. Stovall, p. 185. 

42. Toombs Correspondence, 

43. Diary, p. 427. 

44. Diary, p. 426. 

45. U.S., vol. II, p. 91. 

46. Stovall, p. 18. 

47. Stovall, p. 19. 

48. Reed, p. 281. 

49. To Rhett, Collins, and others, May 10, i860, Toombs Correspondence. 

50. U.S., vol. II, p. 89. 

51. U.S., vol. II, p. 353. 

52. To Crittenden, January 3, 1 849, Toombs Correspondence. 

53. Diary, p. 55. 

54. William P. Trent, Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime, p. 235. 

55. Savannah Republican, quoted in Rhodes, U.S., vol. Ill, p. 213. 

56. Charleston Mercury, quoted in Rhodes, U.S., vol. in, p. 214. 

57. Stovall, p. 226. 

58. To Crittenden, February 9, 1849, Toombs Correspondence. 

59. Stovall, p. 242. 

60. C. J. Woodbury, in Overland Monthly, Series 2, vol. vii, p. 125, 



NOTES 279 

61. Jones, Diary, May 22, 1861. 

62. Mrs. Chesnut, p. 108. 

63. Stovall, p. 242, 

64. To G. Hill and others, June 11, 1862, Toombs Correspondence. 

65. Quoted b)' C. J. Woodbury, in Overland Monthly, Series 2, vol. Vil, p. 
126. 

66. Stovall, p. 264. 

67. Stovall, p. 269. 

68. Stovall, p. 243. 

69. To Stephens, September, 1861 (day uncertain), Toombs Correspond- 
ence. 

70. To Stephens, September 22, 1861, Toombs Correspondence. 

71. To Stephens, July 14, 1862, Toombs Correspondence. 

72. Stovall, p. 262. 

73. M. to A., p. 161. 

74. Toombs to Stephens, August 22, 1862, Toombs Correspondence. 

75. Stovall, p. 254. 

76. B. and L., vol. II, p. 525. 

77. Mrs. Chesnut, p. 171. 

78. Stovall, p. 302. 

79. Stovall, p. 325. 

80. Stovall, p. 320. 

81. To Stephens, November 19, 1870, Toombs Correspondence. 

82. Stovall, p. 342. 

83. Stovall, p. 349. 

84. Stovall, p. 374. 

85. Stovall, p. 375. 

86. Stovall, p. 314. 

87. 5. H. S. P., vol. XIV, p. 303. 



CHAPTER VIII 

1. Kell, p. 149. 

2. J. Russell Soley, The Blockade and the Cruisers, p. 229. 

3. Atlantic Monthly, vol. xxx, p. 95. 

4. Semmes, Mexican War, p. 80. 

5. Semmes, Mexican War, p. 82. 

6. 0. R. N., vol. I, p. 88. 

7. W. H. Rideing, Many Celebrities and a Few Others, p. 2. 

8. Sinclair, p. 275. 

9. Johnston and Browne, p. 433. 
10. Sinclair, p. 55. 



28o NOTES 

11. 0. R. N., vol. I, p. 8ii. 

12. Executive Documents, Forty-first Congress, Alabama Claims, vol. in, 

p. 200. 

13. Atlantic Monthly, vol. xxx, p. 150. 

14. 0. R. N., vol. I, p. 758. 

15. Sinclair, p. 40. Executive Documents, Forty-first Congress, Alabama, 
Claims, vol. in, p. 212; vol. iv, p. 184, et seq. 

16. 0. R. N., p. 816. 

17. Sinclair, p. 167. 

18. Executive Documents, Forty-first Congress, Alabama Claims, vol. in, 

p. 75- 

19. O. R. N., vol. II, p. 562. 

20. Service Afloat, p. 343. 

21. Kell, p. 249. 

22. Service Afloat, p. 497. 

23. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 741. 

24. 0. R. N., vol. n, p. 745. 

25. 0. R. N., vol. n, p. 739. 

26. 0. R. N., vol. I, p. 719. 

27. 0. R. N., vol. I, p. 719. 

28. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 737. 

29. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 768. 

30. O. R. N., vol. I, p. 715. 

31. 0. R. N., vol. n, p. 757. 

32. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 768. 

33. January 26, 1861, Toombs Correspondence. 

34. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 775. 

35. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 764. 

36. Service Afloat, p. 301. 

37. Kell, p. 276. 

38. Service Afloat, p. 760. 

39. 0. R. N., vol. II, p. 728. 

40. Service Afloat, p. 212. 

41. Southern Magazine, November, 1877, quoted in Kell, p. 279. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adams, John Quincy, diary of, 124; 
wrote verses to A. H. Stephens, 
164. 

Alabama, the, 221, 222, 223; built by 
stealth, 224; her crew largely ruf- 
fians, 224; her career, 224; her 
usefulness, 225; not a fighting 
ship, 225, 226; testimony of pris- 
oners, 233, 234. 

Alexander, General E. P., his judg- 
ment of Johnston, 4; of Stuart, 44. 

Alfriend, F. N., on Benjamin, 138, 

144. 145- 

Allan, Colonel William, cited, 85. 

Anderson, Colonel Archer, his por- 
trayal of Johnston, 24. 

Antietam, Toombs's magnificent 
defense of the bridge at, 209. 

Badeau, General Adam, his Life of 

Grant, 99. 
Baker, E. D., demolishes Benjamin 

in debate on secession, 147. 
Bartlett, General Joseph J., 53. 
Battine, Captain Cecil, his estimate 

of Stuart, 44. 
Bayard, Thomas F., on Benjamin, 

139- 
Beauregard, General P. G. T., 19, 
118; chronology, 94; born in 
French Louisiana, 95 ; his appear- 
ance and some of his characteris- 
tics, 95, 96; contrasted with Na- 
poleon, 95, 96; had French talents 
of speech, 97; his "beauty and 
booty" proclamation, 97; his van- 
ity, 96, 98, loi; naive letters of, 
99; adopts ingenious method of 
self laudation, 99; Colonel Ro- 
man's biography of, 99, lOO; his 
own book on first battle of Bull 



Run, 100,105, 1 13; contrasted with 
Stuart, loi ; had little sense of hu- 
mor, loi; Cooke's comment on 
his smile, loi; relations with Da- 
vis unpleasant, 102-104; casts 
slurs upon other generals, 105, 
117; contention with Joseph E. 
Johnston, 105; his conduct during 
the actual course of the war, 106; 
his superintendency at West 
Point, 107; love of country, 107, 
108; meeting with A. S. Johnston 
at Corinth, 108; offers plans for 
Bragg's use, 108; anecdotes of 
childhood, 109; at Drewry's Bluff, 
110, 118; as a commander, no; 
letter about General Ripley, no, 
III; personal relations with offi- 
cers and soldiers, in; worshiped 
in Louisiana, in, 112; attitude of 
soldiers and officers toward, 112; 
his vivid imagination, 113, 114, 
117-120; always ready with ad- 
vice and schemes, 1 14-120; strate- 
gic qualities, 115; a captain in 
Mexico, 115; offers plan to War 
Department to end the war, 116; 
an indefatigable dreamer, 117- 
120; exclaims against Johnston's 
conservatism, 118; his weaknesses, 
118, 119; Davis's sharp comment, 
119. 
Benjamin, Judah P., not admired 
by Johnston, 14; a Jew, 95, 123; 
chronology, 122; born a British 
subject, 123; became U.S. Senator, 
seceded with his state, and died a 
London barrister, 123; his view of 
biography, 123, 124; his reputa- 
tion, 124, 125; known best as au- 
thor of Benjamin on Sales, 125; 



284 



INDEX 



connection with St. Albans raid 
and the attempt to burn New 
York, 125, 131; his oratory, 126, 
127; self-educated, 127; his in- 
come, 127, 128; success at the 
English Bar, 128; tributes to, 128, 
129, 139; political aspects of his 
career, 129; his offices in the Con- 
federate Government, 129, 130; 
censured by Congress for Roa- 
noke Island affair, 130; advanced 
by Davis, 130; contrasted with 
Cavour, 132; prediction in regard 
to North America, 133; his hope 
of European recognition, 133; an 
admirable man of business, 133, 
134; knew how to handle men, 
135; his devotion to President 
Davis, 135, 136; contrasted with 
Lee, 137; trouble with other gen- 
erals, 137; personal characteris- 
tics, 138, 139; his smile, 139, 140; 
some kindly deeds of, 140; atti- 
tude towards life, 140, 141; had 
no religion, 141; buried in Paris 
with Catholic rites, 141; quick 
tempered, 142; his "spat" with 
Davis, 142, 143; fond of games, 
144; a lover of good living, 144, 
145; affectionate toward rela- 
tives, 145, 146; relations with his 
wife, 145, 146; contrasted with 
Lincoln, 146, 147; his real atti- 
tude towards the Confederacy, 
147-149; compares Gladstone and 
Disraeli, 147; Gilmore's descrip- 
tion of, 148; of mediocre ability, 
150; contrasted with Alexander 
H. Stephens, 180. 

Bigelow, Major John, Jr., 45. 

Blaine, J. G., on Benjamin, 128. 

Bolles, Robert A., explains why 
Semmes was not prosecuted, 221 ; 
his defense of "the pirate 
Semmes," 231, 232. 

Bragg, General Braxton, superseded 
by Johnston, 3, 4; Johnston's con- 

■ fidence in, 28; his regard for John- 



ston, 29; relations with Long- 
street, 75, 76. 

Brooks, Preston, his assault on 
Charles Sumner, 194. 

Brown, John, capture of, 36. 

Buckner, General S. B., letter from 
Longstreet, quoted, 76. 

Bull Run, Johnston in control at, 3; 
the name "unrefined," 97; a bril- 
liant victory, 98; Beauregard's 
book on, 100, 105; contention be- 
tween Beauregard and Johnston 
about, 105, 106; two armed mobs 
at, 252. 

Burnside, General Ambrose E., 253. 

Burton, Robert, his Anatomy of Mel- 
ancholy, 160. 

Butler, Benjamin F., 128. 

Butler, Professor Pierce, biographer 
of Benjamin, 124, 128. 

Byron, Lord, 160, 245. 

Cavour, Count, 132, 133. 

Chancellorsville, Stuart at, 45, 60. 

Chesney, Colonel C. C, his estimate 
of Johnston, 5. 

Chesnut, Mrs. Mary B., 9; quoted 
in regard to Johnston, 31; on 
Beauregard's vanity, 102; ex- 
plains failure of Toombs as Secre- 
tary of State, 208; sums up career 
of Toombs, 212, 213. 

Cicero, as a pleader, 126; a con- 
firmed intellectualist, 173. 

Clarendon, Earl of, on the Earl of 
Essex, 26, 27. 

Cobb, Howell, letter of Semmes to, 
241. 

Cocke, General Philip St. George, 
219. 

Coleridge, Lord, his tribute to Ben- 
jamin, 128. 

Colston, Captain F. M., on Stuart's 
scrupulousness, 59. 

Cone, Judge, his affair with Alexan- 
der H. Stephens, 175. 

Cooke, Major Giles P., Beaure- 
gard's aide, ixi. 



INDEX 



285 



Cooke, John Esten, on Stuart at 
Chancellorsville, 45; pen pictures 
of Stuart, 50, 56; his account of 
Beauregard's social relations, 96; 
his comment on Beauregard's 
smile, loi; describes Beauregard's 
relations with officers, ill. 

Cooke, General Philip St. George, 
219. 

Cooper, General Samuel, his rank in 
the Confederate army, 10. 

Cox, General J. D., an admirer of 
Johnston, 4, 25, 26. 

Crittenden, John J., Toombs's friend- 
ship for, 198. 

Dalgetty, Captain Dugald, 97. 

D'Artagnan, 96, 113. 

Davis, Jefferson, his hopes of John- 
ston's success, 3; growing un- 
friendliness between them, 7, 8, 
10; placed Johnston fourth in 
Confederate army, 10; had his 
own ideas of military policy, 11; 
writes sharply to Johnston, 11, 12; 
characterizes letter of Johnston as 
insubordinate, 14; more diplo- 
matic than Johnston, 17; his later 
utterances more savage than 
Johnston's, 19; his patriotism, 20; 
contrasted with Lincoln, 22, 147; 
on Stuart, 45; snubs Longstreet, 
80; unpleasant relations with 
Beauregard, 102, 103; writes 
sharply to Beauregard, 119; 
shows confidence in Benjamin, 
130; a patriotic idealist in pur- 
pose, 135; objects to advice, 135; 
"spat" with Benjamin, 143; com- 
plimentary to Benjamin, 150; op- 
posed by Stephens, 154; com- 
ments on, by Stephens, 163, 171; 
criticism of, 207, 211. 

Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, writes Life of 
her husband, 81; writes of Benja- 
min, 135, 136, 142, 144, 145; her 
portrait of Robert Toombs, 185, 
186, 196. 



Deerhound, the, English yacht that 
rescued Semmes, 229, 240. 

de S6vigne, Madame, her com- 
ment on the historical novels of 
her day, 52. 

Dodd, W. E., calls Benjamin 
"hated Jew," 125. 

Drewry's Bluff, General Whiting at, 
no; Beauregard's plans not car- 
ried out at, 118. 

Dumas, Alexandre, 96. 

Early, General J. A., explains criti- 
cism of Longstreet, 84. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, on self- 
confidence, 68. 

Enobarbus, profound doctrine of, in 
regard to women, 56. 

Ewell, General Richard S., 14, 105, 
256. 

Fair Oaks, 3; Johnston struck down 
by a shell at, 6, 23. 

Fernando de Noronha, 237. 

Floyd, General John B., 112. 

Fort Loudon, Longstreet and Mc- 
Laws at, 78, 79. 

Fort Warren, A. H. Stephens im- 
prisoned in, 163, 165. 

Fremantle, A. J. L., 6; quoted, 13, 
14, 26; his description of Stuart's 
movements, 42; on Longstreet, 
65, 67, 71- 

Garnett, Judge Theodore S, writes 
of Stuart's discipline, 41. 

Gettysburg, battle of, Longstreet's 
connection with, 66, 67, "jj,, 74, 78, 
83, 256, 257; the climax of an in- 
evitable struggle, 249; Lee and 
Meade in command at, 254; posi- 
tion of opposing forces, 255; the 
first day, 255, 256; the second day, 
256, 257; Pickett's great charge, 
257-259; consequences of, 259, 
260. 

Gilmore, J. R., describes Benjamin, 
148. 



286 



INDEX 



Gordon, General J. B., says John- 
ston was not ambitious, 26; and 
Longstreet, 88. 

Grant, General U. S., 104, 117, 119, 
120; on Johnston, 5. 

Grasset, E., his characterization of 
Beauregard, 118. 

Hampton, General Wade, tribute of 
Longstreet to, 88. 

Hampton Roads Peace Commission, 
130. 

Hancock, General Winfield S., 256, 
260. 

Hardee, General William J., 76. 

Harper's Ferry, Johnston's first 
command at, 3; capture of John 
Brown at, 35, 36; Jackson and 
McLaws at, 85. 

Hatteras, the, sunk by the Ala- 
bama, 226. 

Hill, General A. P., 45; his pro- 
posed duel with Longstreet, 
84. 

Hill, General D. H., his difficulty 
with Toombs, 212. 

Hood, General John B., supersedes 
Johnston, 4, 14, 19. 

Hooker, General Joseph, 116, 253. 

Hugo, Victor, 98. 

Imagination, value of, to a com- 
mander, 117. 

Jackson, Andrew, youthful inter- 
view of A. H. Stephens with, 179, 
180. 

Jackson (T. , J.), Stonewall, criti- 
cized by Johnston, 13, 14; his es- 
timate of Longstreet, 44; con- 
trasted with Stuart, 50; Stuart's 
jest at his expense, 53; his pas- 
sionate affection for Lee, 71; his 
imagination, 117; had trouble 
with Benjamin, 137; and Lee, 

252-254- 
James, Sir Henry, praises Benjamin, 
128, 129. 



Jefferson, Thomas, quoted as to 
burning London, 132. 

Jenkins, General Albert G., death 
of, 91. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted, 22; 
dialogue between him and Adam 
Smith, 143. 

Johnston, General Albert Sidney, 
120; his rank in the Confederate 
Army, 10; his meeting with Beau- 
regard at Corinth, 108. 

Johnston, General Joseph E., chro- 
nology, 2; his distinguished serv- 
ice, 3, 4; rank in Confederate Army, 

3, 10; often wounded, 3, 6, 8, 9, 
17, 23, 36, 37; his relations with 
Davis, 3, 7, 8, 10-20; superseded 
by Hood, 4, 14, 19; restored,4; un- 
surpassed in retreat and defense, 

4, 5; opinions of, expressed by 
Cox, Alexander, Longstreet, Pol- 
lard, 4; by Chesney, Grant, 
Young, Sherman, Ropes, 5; his 
wife's understanding of, 6; his ill 
luck, 7, 9, ID, 23; criticizes Lee, 
Jackson, and other generals, 13, 
14; writes an "insubordinate" 
letter to Davis, 14,15; but seeks to 
be obedient and respectful, 17, 18; 
an admirable writer, 20; his book, 
20, 22, 31; loose in statement, 21; 
over-sensitive, 22, 26; had many 
attractive qualities, 23, 25; his 
bravery, 23; afraid of kerosene 
lamps, 23, 24; honest and up- 
right, 24, 25; candidate for Con- 
gress after the war, 25; cared no- 
thing for display, 26; his warmth 
of nature, 27, 28, 29; praises 
Stuart, Longstreet, Bragg, and 
Lee, 27, 28; adored his wife, 29; 
was loved and trusted by officers 
and soldiers, 29, 30; a magnetic 
leader, 30, 31; his opinion of Stu- 
art, 44; contention between him 
and Beauregard about first battle 
of Bull Run, 105. 

Johnston, Mrs. Joseph E., 6, 29. 



INDEX 



287 



Jones, Aaron, Beauregard's orderly, 

no. 
Jones, J. B., his estimate of Stuart, 

41; his distrust of Benjamin, 136, 

139, 140. 

Kearsarge, the, destroys the Ala- 
bama, 226. 

Kell, Lieutenant John M., devotion 
of sailors to, 235. 

Knoxville expedition, Longstreet in 
charge of, 78, 79. 

Lamb, Charles, quoted, 138; his de- 
scription of Coleridge, 220. 

Law, General E. M., and Longstreet, 
78, 79. 

Lay, Bishop Henry C, 5. 

Lee, General Fitzhugh, on Stuart at 
West Point, 35; a favorite of Stu- 
art, 41; his characterization of 
Stuart's voice, 47; his picture of 
Stuart, 50. 

Lee, General Robert E., in, 117; 
wounded but once, 6; with John- 
ston on voyage to Mexico, 7; his 
original rank in the Confederate 
army, 10; criticized by Johnston, 
13; on Johnston's sensitiveness, 
22; Johnston's letter to Wigfall 
about, 28;an ofificer's comment on, 
31; his high opinion of Stuart, 42, 
44, 45, 46; too lofty for vanity, 50; 
his severe taste, 51 ; retort to Stu- 
art, 58; writes to Stuart after 
Chancellorsville, 60; affection for 
Longstreet, 70; Jackson's praise 
of, 71 ; disregards Longstreet's ad- 
vice, 72-74; takes blame for fail- 
ure at Gettysburg, 74, 102; gen- 
erosity toward Longstreet, 78; his 
personal appearance, 86; his kind- 
ness to Beauregard, 118; his tact, 
137; his praise of Toombs, 209; 
typified all that was best in the 
South, 253; some characteristics 
of, 253, 254. 

Lee, General S. D., 16. 



Leopardi, Giacomo, Alexander H. 
Stephens contrasted with, 160, 
162, 165. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 86, 87, 104; con- 
trasted with Benjamin, 146, 147; 
his correspondence with Alexan- 
der H. Stephens, 171; his eulogy 
of Stephens, 178. 

Longstreet, General James, on 
Johnston, 4, 30; praised by John- 
ston, 27, 28; his estimate of Stu- 
art, 44; chronology, 64; of mixed 
blood, 65; his appearance and 
characteristics, 65, 66; a superb 
fighter, 66; at Gettysburg, 66, 67, 
73, 74, 78, 83, 256, 257; his reck- 
lessness, 67; his defects, 68, 83- 
87; his stolid self-confidence, 68- 
70, 8 1 ; his love of Lee, 7 1 ; his atti- 
tude as Lee's subordinate, 71, 72, 
73. 74; objects to the campaign 
into Pennsylvania, 73; sent to the 
West, 74; his attitude toward 
Bragg, 75; writes to Buckner 
about Bragg, 76; offers advice to 
Davis, 76, 77; his dealings with 
subordinates in the West, 77-80; 
in charge of Knoxville expedition, 
78; snubbed by Davis, 76, 77, 80; 
suggests "impressing" all the 
gold in the country, 81; conduct 
after the war, 81, 82; a practical 
American, 82; attitude toward 
Lee after the war, 83, 84, 86; his 
cruel language towards Early, 
84, 85; remarks about Jackson 
and Virginia, 85; appeal at out- 
break of Spanish War, 86; refer- 
ence to Lincoln, 87; genuinely 
patriotic, 87; his sympathy for 
noncombatants, 87, 88; rela- 
tions with his men, 88-90; 
becomes a Roman Catholic, 90- 
92. 

Longstreet, Mrs. James, writes Life 
of her husband, 81, 82; quotes him, 
86; comments on General Hamp- 
ton, 88. 



288 



INDEX 



Mackall, W. W., letter to Johnston, 
quoted, 15, 16; on Longstreet, 75. 

MacTurk, Captain, joyous com- 
ment of, 13. 

Maffitt, John N., saying attributed 
by him to Semmes, 246. 

Mahan, Admiral A. T., as a young 
midshipman begged permission to 
pursue Semmes, 226. 

Maranham, the Federal Consul at, 

244. 245- 

Martinique, 237. 

McClellan, General George B., 47, 
115.252. 

McClellan, Major H. B., incident of 
General Stuart, 39. 

McCulloch, General Ben, harsh tele- 
gram of Benjamin to, 137. 

McLaws, General Lafayette, his crit- 
icism of Longstreet, at Knox- 
ville, 78; charges against, 79, 80; at 
Harper's Ferry, 85. 

Meade, General George G., suc- 
ceeds Hooker at Gettysburg, 254; 
personal characteristics of, 254, 

255- 
Mosby, General John S., a favorite 
of Stuart, 41; writes of Stuart's 
gayety and power of endurance. 



Napoleon, 51, 95, 96, 113, 117. 
Navy, the Union, played significant 

part in the war, 252. 
New York, attempted burning of, 

125, 131. 
North, the, contrast with the South 

before the war, 249, 250. 

"Old Beeswax," a nickname for 
Semmes, 245. 

Palfrey, General F. W., his opinion 
of Johnston's accuracy, 21. 

Patterson, General Robert, outman- 
oeuvred by Johnston, 3; proposed 
scheme of Beauregard against, 115. 

Pemberton, General John C, 14, 16. 



Pepys, Samuel, diarj' of, 124. 

Phillips, Ulrich B., characterization 
of A. H. Stephens, 173. 

Pickens, Governor F. W., writes to 
Beauregard, 112. 

Pickett, General George E., at Get- 
tysburg, 257, 258, 259. 

Pickett, Mrs. George E., remark of 
an officer to, in regard to John- 
ston, 31. 

Plutarch, cited, 220. 

Poe, Orlando M., and General Stu- 
art, 54. 

Pollard, E. A., on Johnston, 4, 5; 
describes Longstreet's appear- 
ance, 65; on Beauregard, 112; 
notes Benjamin's smile, 139. 

Pollock, Sir Frederick, praises Ben- 
jamin, 139. 

Public opinion, power of, 191. 

Rabelais, 196. 

Randolph, General George W., ad- 
mired by Johnston, 14. 

Reed, Colonel John C, an admirer 
of Toombs, 186. 

Reynolds, General John F., 255. 

Rhodes, James Ford, contrasts 
Johnston with Lee, 22; compares 
Davis and Lincoln, 22; on Benja- 
min, 125, 131; comments on Rob- 
ert Toombs, 200; on Toombs's bill 
in connection with Kansas strug- 
gle, 202, 203. 

Rideing, W. H., on Semmes, 227. 

Ripley, General Roswell S., Beaure- 
gard's accusations of, no, III. 

Roanoke Island, 130. 

Robbins, Lieutenant W. T., 52. 

Robertson, General J. B., and Long- 
street, 78, 79. 

Roman, Colonel Alfred, his biogra- 
phy of Beauregard, 99, 100. 

Ropes, John Codman, on Johnston, 

5- 
Russell, William H., on Benjamin, 

139- 
Ryan, Lieutenant George, 70. 



INDEX 



289 



St. Albans, raid on, 125, 131. 

Schaff, General Morris, tells of 
Beauregard at West Point, 107. 

Scheibert, J., on General Stuart, 
38, 44; his account of Stuart's 
planning, 43; quotes General 
von Schmidt's opinion of Stuart, 
44. 

Scott, General Winfield, 6, 115; and 
Toombs, 195. 

Seddon, J. A., 22, 107; letter of Stu- 
art to, 40. 

Sedgwick, General John, his esti- 
mate of Stuart, 36. 

Semmes, Raphael, considered as a 
pirate, 220; on the composition of 
pirate crews, 222, 223; his defense 
of his methods, 225; sank the Hat- 
teras, 226; defeated by the Kear- 
sarge, 226; the real Semmes, 22-] ; 
early life, 227; personal appear- 
ance and characteristics, 227; a 
Douglas man, 228; kept log-book 
of his cruises, 228; his legal lore, 
229; his sincerity, 229; wrote book 
on Mexican War, 229, 230; his 
treatment of prisoners, 230, 231; 
the prisoners' view, 231, 234; his 
treatment of his crew, 232, 233; 
had confidence of his sailors, 234, 
235; incident told by Lieutenant 
Kell, 235; much attached to his 
wife and children, 235, 236; liter- 
ary in tastes, 236; his diary re- 
cords love of nature, 236, 237; 
deeply religious, 238, 239; his 
courage and patriotism, 240; let- 
ter to Howell Cobb, 241 ; defended 
by Sinclair, 242; pursued with 
scorn and abuse, 242, 243; reply 
to Mrs. Kell, 243; his speech often 
belied his real feeling, 243; quota- 
tion from his war diary, 244; 
coarse streak shows in some of his 
writing, 244, 245; "Old Bees- 
wax," 245, 246; his words on the 
sinking of the Alabama, 246. 

Seven Pines, Johnston's one aggres- 



sive battle, 4; Johnston wounded 
at, 8. 

Sherman, General W. T., on John- 
ston, 5, 117. 

Shiloh, Beauregard at, 100, ri8, 119, 

Slidell, John, comment on Benja- 
min, 138. 

Sinclair, Lieutenant Arthur, 27; 
comments of, on the Alabama, 
223; tells of treatment of prison- 
ers, 230; of discipline of crew, 233; 
defends utterances of Semmes, 
242. 

Smith, General Kirby, his feeling 
toward Johnston, 29, 30. 

Soley, Professor J. Russell, defends 
Confederate privateers, and cruis- 
ers, 221 ; on the defeat of the Ala- 
bama, 226. 

South, the, conditions in, contrasted 
with those in the North before the 
war, 249, 250. 

Speer, Judge Emory, and Long- 
street, 88. 

Stephens, Alexander H., chronology, 
152; character and career of, in- 
volve contradictions, 153, 154; his 
physique, 153, 155; distinctive 
traits, 153, 175, 176; a logical de- 
fender of slavery, 153, 154, 179; 
bitterly opposed secession, 154, 
165, 178; imprisoned at Fort War- 
ren, 154, 163; extracts from his 
diary, 154, 166, 168; opposed to 
the conduct of the Government, 
154; devotion of Negroes to, 154, 
164; his health, 155; Dick Taylor's 
diatribe on, 156; contrast be- 
tween physical lack and spiritual 
strength, 156, 157; quoted in re- 
gard to himself , 157, 158, 159, 160, 
i6t, 162; contrasted with Vol- 
taire, 158; constitutionally melan- 
choly, 159; sensitive as to his ap- 
pearance, 159, 160; his physical 
and spiritual courage, 160; his re- 
ligious life, 161, 162, 176, 177; his 
home, Liberty Hall, open to all, 



290 



INDEX 



162; rich in social qualities, 163; 
comments on Davis, 163, 206; 
generally beloved, 163, 164; never 
married, 165; his affection for his 
native state, 165, 166; contrasted 
with Toombs, 166, 167, 188, 189; 
his love for his family, 167, 168; 
tenderness toward animals, 168, 
169; his dog Rio, 168; constant- 
ly helping other men, 169, 170; 
his tolerance, 171; a deductive 
thinker, 172; his vanity compared 
with Cicero's, 173; modest, but 
self-confident, 174; his affair with 
Judge Cone, 175; as a lawyer, 176, 
177; as a politician, 177, 178, 180; 
Lincoln's eulogy of, 178; de- 
pended on his convictions, 178, 
179; caustic remark of Richard 
Taylor about, 179; youthful inter- 
view with President Jackson, 179, 
180; attitude after the war, 180; 
an idealist, 180; on Robert 
Toombs, 206; on Semmes, 228. 

Stephens, Linton, half-brother of A. 
H. Stephens, 159; their mutual 
devotion, 167, 168; quoted in re- 
gard to Toombs, 196. 

Stevens, General Clement H., on 
general feeling of army towards 
Johnston, 30, 31. 

Stiles, Robert, estimate of Johnston, 
28, 29; his account of behavior of 
officers at time of Longstreet's 
wound, 90. 

Stuart, General J. E. B., praised by 
Johnston, 27; chronology, 34; a 
fighter by nature, 35, 36, 46; dis- 
tinguishing characteristics, 35; 
an exceptional horseman, 35, 48; 
his account of the capture of John 
Brown, 36; wounded but once, 37; 
his naivete, 38; won love of his 
men, 38; his love for and care of 
his men, 39, 40; sends characteris- 
tic letter to Secretary Seddon, 40; 
his discipline, 41 ; his self-control, 
42; Lee's tribute to, 42, 44, 45; 



careful in planning, 43; opinions of 
other generals about him, 44; con- 
sidered for command of Jackson's 
corps, 44, 45; at Chancellorsville, 
45; his exuberant cheerfulness, 
46, 47; his resourcefulness, 47, 48; 
his voice like music, 47; magnifi- 
cent physique, 48; single handed 
capture of forty-four Union sol- 
diers, 49; quotes Horace, 50; Fitz- 
hugh Lee's picture of, 50; Cooke's 
picture, 50, 51; his golden spurs, 
51; his flowery style, 51, 52; jests 
at Jackson's expense, 53; has fun 
with his adversaries, 53, 54; his 
West Point nickname, 54; his taste 
in music, 54, 55; fond of dancing, 
55; his attitude toward women, 
56-58; married at twenty-two, 58; 
of high moral character, 58, 59; his 
religion, 59, 60; a strict observer 
of Sunday, 59, 60; died at thirty, 
60; answers aspersions of General 
Trimble, 6 1 , 62 ; hisbest epitaph , 62 ; 
contrasted with Beauregard, loi. 

Sully, Chancellor, 100, 147. 

Sumner, Charles, on Benjamin, 139; 
assault by Brooks on, 194. 

Sumter, career of the, 223. 

Sweeney, " Bob," Stuart's banjo- 
player, 55. 

Talleyrand, 124, 147. 

Taney, Roger Brooke, Benjamin's 
compliment to, 126. 

Taylor, General Richard, on health 
of Alexander H. Stephens, 156; 
caustic remark by, about Ste- 
phens, 179. 

Toombs, Gabriel, his tribute to his 
brother Robert, 198. 

Toombs, Robert, contrasted with A. 
H. Stephens, 166, 188, 189; chro- 
nology, 184; a Georgian estimate 
of, 185; his physique impressive, 
185; Mrs. Davis's portrait of, 185, 
186; a fighter, 186, 187, 194, 215; 
as a speaker, 186, 187, 191, 192; 



INDEX 



291 



as a lawyer, 187, 200; a believer in 
Revolution, 188; his feeling about 
Mexico, 188; hated the party sys- 
tem, 189; his view of war, 189; an 
individualist, 189, 190, 215; indif- 
ferent to popularity, 190; de- 
plored rise of the money power, 
191 ; on public opinion, 191 ; power 
given by his temperament, 192; 
contest over the speakership of 
the House (1849), 193; defended 
slavery in Tremont Temple 
(1856), 193, 203; his testimony in 
regard to Brooks's assault on 
Sumner, 194; had sense of humor 
and a shrewd wit, 195; his story of 
the red-headed man, 195, 196; a 
brilliant and fascinating talker, 
196; fond of nature, 197; his treat- 
ment of his slaves, 197; his taste 
for alcohol, 197; ready to enter- 
tain ever\-body, 197; tribute of his 
brother, 198; his religious experi- 
ence, 198, 199, 215; affection for 
his wife, 199; letters to her, 199; a 
good man of business, 200; his 
honesty, 200, 201; "violent in 
speech, but safe in counsel," 201; 
supported Clay and Webster, 
202 ; his part in the Kansas strug- 
gle, 202, 203; opposed immediate 
secession, 204; his attitude toward 
the attack on Sumter, 205; men- 
tioned for presidency of Confeder- 
acy, 205, 206; lacked necessary 
qualities for that office, 206, 207; 
made secretary of state, 207; his 
failure, 208; refused to become 
secretary of war, 208; his ambi- 
tions, 209; his bravery, 209; 
praised by Lee at Antietam, 209; 
beloved by his men, 210; lacked 
self-discipline, 210, 212; hated 
West Point, 211; his opinion of J. 
E. Johnston, 211; his feeling 
toward Davis, 211; disobeys or- 
ders at Second Bull Run, 211,212; 
has trouble with D. H. Hill, 212; 



Longstreet's opinion of, 212; a 
Chesterfield with ladies, 213; his 
course after returning from Eu- 
rope, 213, 214; helps form new 
constitution for Georgia, 214, 215; 
an unreconstructed rebel, 215. 

Trimble, General, underrated cavalry, 
40; his aspersions of Stuart, 61, 62. 

Truth of history, the, 106. 

Vallandigham, Clement L., 116. 
Van Dorn, General Earl, dispatch 

from Beauregard to, 109. 
Voltaire, Alexander H. Stephens 

contrasted with, 158, 177. 
Von Borcke, H., quoted, 37. 
Von Schmidt, General, his opinion 

of Stuart, 44. 

Waddell, James D., his life of Linton 
Stephens, 168. 

War, the, between the North and 
South, indispensable, 251; some 
results of, 259, 260; some lessons 
learned from, 260, 261. 

Webster, Daniel, anecdote of, 141. 

West, the great, question of its 
place in struggle between North 
and South, 250, 251. 

West Point, Davis and Johnston 
said to have been hostile at, 8; 
Stuart's characteristics at, 35; 
Beauregard's superintendency at, 
107; hated by Toombs, 211. 

Whiting, General W. H. C, no. 

Whitmore, William, his pamphlet, 
The Cavalier Dismounted, 196. 

Wigfall, General Louis T., letter 
from Johnston to, about Lee, 28. 

Williamsburg, Johnston at, 3. 

Winslow, Commodore John A., com- 
mander of the Kearsarge, 243. 

Wise, John S., on Beauregard's ad- 
miration for women, 96; uncom- 
plimentary to Benjamin, 125, 130, 
138. 

Young, J. R., 5. 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
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